Misdirected Attention

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

Andrew Sullivan confirms my instinct that even as the media write about whether a gay cowboy movie can find mainstream acceptance (and, considering that the film is playing well in Lubbock, Texas, Sullivan argues that it can), all kinds of boundaries are being crossed on network television. Notes Sullivan, "As for the mainstream, on Desperate Housewives last night, there were three separate graphic scenes of two late-teenage boys french-kissing, waking up naked in the same bed together, and mauling each other's necks. Brokeback is tame in comparison."

Exactly! Housewives showed more skin, gave a more direct shot of the make-out session, and treated the in-bed scene more nonchalantly than Brokeback ever did; the only thing it left to the imagination that the movie made clear was what the two lovers did with one another. But given the state of undress of Andrew and Justin on DH (which was as complete as network TV will ever allow for an underaged male couple), I think we can safely assume that making out and neck-mauling is not the sexual limit of this duo.

So make hay, pundits, with Brokeback, which elevates gay love to the sort of high art only the most educated folks in the country will see. Meanwhile, 25 milion people watched two young men engage in all manner of "sexual deviancy" last night and, when questioned about it, one of the two young men expressed sarcastic relief that his mother hadn't turned into a pillar of salt after witnessing a man-on-man kiss. Come on, religious right! Marc Cherry is practically calling you out! Boycott ABC over this and help DH pass CSI as the number one show in America!