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‘Brokeback Mountain’ award sparks criticism

Following the success of “Brokeback Mountain” at last night’s Golden Globe Awards, conservative activists have called for a national inquiry into “liberal bias” in the film and theater industry.

“My scientific studies indicate that liberals outnumber conservatives by 3500 to 1 in film and theater,” said David Horowitz, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, a nonpartisan watchdog group funded by nobody in particular.  “There’s no way to explain that kind of imbalance except by active, conscious discrimination on the part of so-called liberals.”

Michael Medved, an independent film critic and bestselling author, agreed, remarking that liberal bias was not confined to Hollywood and the independent film industry.  “Look at Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, the Goodman and Steppenwolf in Chicago, the Guthrie in Minneapolis, regional theaters throughout the country—and don’t get me started on San Francisco,” said Medved.  “The bias is pervasive and systemic, running all the way from top producers and directors to set designers and stage hands.”

Medved pointed to an essay published last year by In Character magazine in which New York-based theater critic Terry Teachout wrote,

I’ve seen, read, and heard about enough contemporary American and British plays to know that the political point of view of most of their authors is well to the left of center. . . .  Of the two hundred-odd new plays I’ve seen in my two years as a working critic, not one could be described as embodying a specifically right-wing political perspective, nor do I know any New York-based playwrights or actors who are openly conservative.

“If we could do for theater what David Horowitz has done for American campuses,” said Medved, “the New York State Senate would already be holding hearings on liberal bias in the industry.”

Other critics argue that the liberal dominance of film and theater inevitably leads to a “skewing” of subject matter and perspective.  As James Dobson, an unaffiliated cultural critic with no explicit political agenda, points out, “Nowhere in ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is there any indication that 43 percent of gay cowboys have an average of five hundred sexual partners in their lifetimes, that 28 percent of gay cowboys have over one thousand sexual partners, or that gay cowboys have an average life span of only 43 years as a result.  Hollywood needs to begin telling the truth about the gay cowboy lifestyle,” concludes Dobson, “and it won’t do that until the conservative viewpoint is included in a fair and balanced way.”

L. Brent Bozell III of the Media Research Center, a just plain, ordinary media research center of some kind, added that liberal bias can also be detected in the range of subjects traditionally ignored by mainstream film and theater.  “Heterosexuality is the last taboo,” Bozell noted, “and heterosexual conservatives have to break the silence and begin demanding respect as human beings.  We want to see heterosexual Westerns, heterosexual romantic comedies, heterosexual domestic dramas, and heterosexual action films when we go to the movies.  We want Hollywood to represent our experiences, our lives, and our loves for a change.”

Dobson likened conservatives’ battle against mainstream film and theater to the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s.  “Like the great Dr. Martin Luther King, we have a dream,” Dobson said, “and we dream of the day when the conservative viewpoint finally gets a fair hearing in American culture.”

Posted by on 01/17 at 09:25 AM

  1. I blame class. It’s well known that playwrights need a “room of one’s own,” uninterrupted solitude and quiet, in which to create, and conservatives are denied this essential, what with all their maids and valets and such continually interrupting them.

    Still, I have to quibble with the likes of Bozell. He displays a strong regional bias. He’s willing to accept money from the rustic gays of the East Coast, what with their log cabins and such, but men of the treeless western plains, who cannot build log cabins, are out of luck. It’s sad. What would the history of the Western Expansion be without gay cowboys? You can’t spell “whoopie-ti-yi-yay”, when all is said and done, without “whoopie.”

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  01/17  at  10:58 AM

  2. Good point, Chris.  I’d completely forgotten about the knock, knock, “sir, I have your Oxycontin—sir?” effect.  If not for Wilma Cline’s constant pestering, surely Rush Limbaugh would have written the definitive conservative reply to Torch Song Trilogy by now.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  11:07 AM

  3. I wish to show my support for Mike Medved and Jim Dobson.  This Brokeback Mountain is terrible because this one single film has undermined the hundreds of thousands of films about heterosexual love.  Next thing you know, there might be a second big film about homosexual lovers--or maybe adultery committed by homos who had gotten married in Vermont or...ew, Canada.  And then where woud America be?

    I shudder for our civilization.  This is such an important issue. Darfur, illegal wiretaps, ethics inquiries on Capitol Hill be damned!

    Posted by Mitchell Freedman  on  01/17  at  11:37 AM

  4. Take a look at this somewhat freshman article which suggests that even the good ‘ole ‘Liberals’ aren’t that bias. 

    It’s like conservatives aren’t happy with their overt and abundant control in Washington, so now they have to control Hollywood.  What next?

    Great post Michael! 

    Posted by AdorableGirlfriend  on  01/17  at  12:01 PM

  5. Hey Adorable, I folded that url into your comment, if that’s all right with you, so that it wouldn’t break my Internets.  Thanks for the shout!

    Mitchell, let’s you and I liveblog the Congressional hearings.  You know the MSM won’t give this issue the prominence it deserves.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  12:18 PM

  6. All I needed to know about Brokeback Mountain, is that the screenplay was co-authored by the America-hating nihilist Larry McMurtrey. The movies based on McMurtrey’s own works--e.g., Hud, The Last Picture Show, Terms Of Endearment, Lonesome Dove--are chock full of the sneering, snickering treatment of America’s history and heartland we’ve come to expect from the commie cultural elite.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  12:22 PM

  7. "43 percent of gay cowboys...lifespan of only 43 years...”

    What’s with the “43” repetition? Must be some kind of liberal bias code number. In fact, I bet the number “43” is gay.

    Posted by Bulworth  on  01/17  at  12:22 PM

  8. Funny you should mention that, Bulworth.  Remember the softball game in which every player wore number 43?

    Makes you think.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  12:40 PM

  9. Dobson’s desire to imprint a more conservative value on American culture is futile at best and sinister at its worst. As Matthew Arnold sees it, “Culture is the pursuit of total perfection by means of getting to know…the best which has been thought and said in the world, and through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits. Believing themselves to be in possession of eternal truths, Dobson and his conservative followers feel no need to critically evaluate their selfish orthodoxy. William James summarizes it best, “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” What a stark and desolate landscape would await Americans in Dobson’s stunted world of intellectual inquiry.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  01:37 PM

  10. “The bias is pervasive and systemic, running all the way from top producers and directors to set designers and stage hands.”

    Oh, it’s all true.  When I was a stagehand working for an opera company in Chicago during the 2000 election, I found out that the Assistant Stage Manager was planning to vote for Bush.  You better believe my fellow Liberal Theater Conspiracy Stagehands and I did our damndest to create an intolerable work environment for her by… um… huh.  You know, in retrospect, I don’t think we did anything.  But I bet it was still pretty awful.  Did we learn nothing from the brave heroes of the Interregnum?  Close our theaters now, before it’s too late!

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  01:43 PM

  11. Sean, you’re saying you gave this poor woman the silent treatment rather than validate her personal choices?  You know, that’s the worst kind of liberal bias of all.

    BobbyV—you may be right about the Dobson landscape.  But then again, as I learned during my three-week sojourn at Focus on the Family, there would be a real boom in the sale of child-beating implements.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  01:59 PM

  12. Yes, the worst kind of silent treatment: the kind where we talked to her both in the theater so we could all do our jobs AND at the diner during meal breaks.  The way we all traded jokes and told stories… oh, it was horrifying.  Five minutes of that, and David Horowitz himself would be begging for the gay cowboys.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  02:28 PM

  13. “Look at Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, the Goodman and Steppenwolf in Chicago...”

    Not to worry, Mr. Medved.  Gary Sinise, a Steppenwolf co-counder, has slipped to the side of the scared and scary.  He’s now shilling for the Bush OmniPresidency; full incorporation can’t be far behind.

    I think his slippage coincided with his getting the job at the drive-through window in the <em>CSI,/em> franchise.

    Posted by Ereshkigal  on  01/17  at  02:47 PM

  14. Having grown up in the West, and having spent each of my summers in the mountains of Colorado doing things like repairing log cabins, may I point out that to reach the 500 number, you have to be doing one hell of a tourist business? My god, there are barely 500 people in many of those counties. Now I’m not saying that the good Dr. Cameron is incorrect. Certainly, I really threw myself into my work in cowboy country, and look with pride on what amounted to community outreach. But 500 is just such a difficult number to get to by 43, depending where one lives. In fact, working back through the math I find that a good number of the 500 must have not been homosexual at all, given the population density of the Rockies. This is in keeping with the ethos of the West, however. A buddy is always willing to help a buddy out. If you’re below your quota and fast approaching 43, then your friends are wont to pitch in and throw down.

    So Here’s To You, Mr. Gay Cowpoke. Hit your stride and get along little doggies. And here’s to the great American Heterosexual who is willing to put out in order to keep the numbers, well, straight.

    Posted by Tyler  on  01/17  at  02:55 PM

  15. Michael, you and that fellow you linked to the other day should just have a parody deathmatch already.  Have you seen Acephalous’s Index yet?  Because clearly, what this world needs is fewer gay cowboys and more funny deathmatches.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  04:06 PM

  16. What’s with the “43” repetition? Must be some kind of liberal bias code number. In fact, I bet the number “43” is gay.

    Not to mention the 43 currently inhabiting the White House ...

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  05:34 PM

  17. Parody deathmatch!  Great idea, Ron.  I can’t wait to see what my Claymation figure looks like.

    And I’ll have more on the subject of parody tomorrow, I promise.  Not a parody, but something on the subject of parody.  Can’t tell you who the subject is, though. . . .

    Posted by Michael  on  01/17  at  06:11 PM

  18. Scott: (to self) What are all these hits from Berube’s place I’m getting?  Residual Kong?  I should check it out. 

    [Times passes...]

    Scott: (to everyone in three mile radius) A parody deathmatch with Michael?!?  What next?  A little one-on-one with Shaq?  A few rounds with Tiger?  A conversation with Stanley Fish!?!

    Seriously Ron, thanks for the compliment, but I’m inclined to turn down deathmatches that’ll result in my, you know, death.  (Really, what person in his right mind enters a deathmatch he don’t already know he’s going to win.  Maybe if you’d volunteered me to duel say Powerline, I’d second my nomination.  Then again, I’m not sure I could out-parody Powerline either, only for entirely different reasons.)

    Posted by Scott Eric Kaufman  on  01/17  at  07:12 PM

  19. 43
    The Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything just got one better.

    Nigel Tufnel: Forty-three. Exactly. One better.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  07:52 PM

  20. Dr. Dobson sez:

    “Our era preaches tolerance of all kinds and forms. In fact, it seems like mainstream America believes tolerance is the ultimate virtue. But what exactly does tolerance mean? One definition Webster offers for tolerance is “a sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own.” So, if someone has beliefs or practices that differ from ours-–or shall we say from God’s-- should we tolerate them?”

    That’s a rhetorical question for Dr. Dobson’s flock.

    Posted by Steven Josselson  on  01/17  at  08:02 PM

  21. It was kind of annoying to hear that music every time, and there were some other movies that looked interesting to me, but I haven’t seen any of them--so, really, I can’t just.

    I just thought that it was awesome that George Clooney thanked Jack Abramoff.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  08:14 PM

  22. Tell you what, one more political party spends hundreds of millions of dollars attacking straight marriage in an election year, there’s going to be trouble.

    Posted by julia  on  01/17  at  09:59 PM

  23. Leaving aside the immediate question of Brokeback Mountain, there’s no possibility of “conservative” art in America that’s anything more than absolute drek.

    I use the quotations not to be ironic - I do actually think there can be politically conservative great artists.  In fact, before WWII, there were large numbers of conservative artists in Europe: Baudelaire, Celine, Flaubert, Matthew Arnold, Bernanos, Waugh and many others.  There conversely were only a handful of conservative American great artists - Eliot and Pound who lived in exile, and some of the Southern Agrarians, who lived in a form of internal exile.

    The problem is that it is essentially impossible to be an actual conservative in America - conservatism must, in the end, come down to defending a royal or aristocratic polity (traditional conservatism) or, further right, an openly authoritarian regime. Since neither of these things is really possible in America (until recently), a real conservative in America would be impossibly antagonistic against every reality of America existance. Also, while European conservative artists did have actual (however faded) aristocrats and truly conservative churches to ground themselves in, American conservatives........have rich asshole capitalists in McMansions and crazed pentecostal “churches” to defend.  Yeah, what a tradition.

    Posted by  on  01/17  at  10:14 PM

  24. I’m still waiting for Horowitz to announce the obvious “intelligence bias” in college, and call for an investigation into why people with high grades are accepted into colleges at a much better rate than people with low grades.

    Posted by  on  01/18  at  09:14 AM

  25. Michael (#17):
    Not a parody, but something on the subject of parody.  Can’t tell you who the subject is, though. . . .

    I’m guessing Ariel Dorfman’s recent performance, retold here.

    Posted by  on  01/18  at  11:01 AM

  26. Nope!  Not Dorfman’s performance, which I truly admire—but as it happens, weirdly enough, my story about the subject of parody (which I’ll post later today) does involve Dorfman very, very peripherally.  In a Borgesian kind of way, of course.

    Posted by Michael  on  01/18  at  11:50 AM

  27. I may need Dobson to correct my misunderstanding: but if the ID’er created men in his own image, and created gay men, then doesn’t that make the ID’er, well, you know, like gay or something???  And then, maybe the film industry is just another source output of the ID’er’s various efforts to have the “hands” of men document the ID story in the most literal of divine form????

    Posted by  on  01/18  at  02:43 PM

  28. you don’t understand.  The ID’er created men, but they *choose* to be gay, because they like perverting the natural order.  Just like you chose to be straight.  I fondly remember the day in high school when i was looking at the jocks and the cheerleaders, thinking to myself, “Gay, or straight?  Hrmmmm....” and of course i eventually chose straight.  Thank ID’er.  Of course, i could choose to feel the same way about men as i do now about women, if i wanted to.  At any time.  But i don’t.  Ever.  Not even a little.  AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME! AIEEEE!@

    Posted by Zenji  on  01/18  at  04:14 PM

  29. Brokeback is not liberal; it’s faux-liberal, and more of the sort of chi chi bogusly aristocrat product now thought to be liberal by consumerists and the starbucks sort of leftist.  Paris Hilton is not liberal nor is Ho-wood: it’s wannabe ancien regime decadence. The G-word itself is not some advance in human development: mostly it’s used as a means to humiliate men, especially caucasian men, hetero or not.  G-button is more like a 9mm hole in some person’s head, or a star of david pinned to a lapel. But that’s how many so-called democrats operate now: in operation Get Whitey whatever it takes to humiliate say cowboys or caucasian or european intellectuals will be used.  Nietzsche? o yeah queer as a 3-dollar bill y’all.  Hillary Clinton’s as scary as any GOP’ster these days

    Posted by Raoul  on  01/18  at  04:58 PM

  30. Hi, Jason/ Raoul-of-Sorrow.  What a distinctive set of obsessions you have!  I’d recognize ‘em anywhere.

    Posted by  on  01/18  at  06:06 PM

  31. We want to see heterosexual Westerns, heterosexual romantic comedies, heterosexual domestic dramas, and heterosexual action films when we go to the movies.  We want Hollywood to represent our experiences, our lives, and our loves for a change.

    Here’s a hint, you twat Bozell: I’ve been bombarded with your hetero propaganda for as long as I’ve been aware of being alive, so if one freaking movie with a gay theme gets some buzz and money, then tough shit.  I’ve had to put up with shitty Kevin Costner westerns, Jennifer Lopez “comedies”, turgid pap like Ordinary People and Ahnuld, so kindly fuck off.  As Morrissey so correctly put it (crooning about Thatcher):

    It’s people like you
    That make me feel so old inside
    When will you die?
    When will you die?
    When will you die?

    Hahahaha my word I need to submit is hell.  If hell is not other people, it’s surely Brent Bozell.

    Posted by  on  01/18  at  06:44 PM

  32. Sorry, I liked Brokeback Mountain and thought it deserved the award.

    Posted by  on  01/18  at  10:13 PM

  33. Oh, David, you old kidder you.  You know, one of these days you’re going to have to decide what you really think about the Donald Wildmons and the Gary Bauers and the James Dobsons lining up in front of you to give Dubya a big bear hug and thank him for his Saint Sebastianesque willingness to “take all those arrows for the rest of us,” as you so gaily put it.  Just saying.

    Good to hear that the President is “looking slim and trim,” too!

    Posted by Michael  on  01/18  at  11:26 PM

  34. Michael, thanks for the link.  I’m just spellbound by the ending:

    ‘Graciously, he said “You take more than I do,” which I don’t and said so. Then as I was walking away he called out, “Don’t let them get to you.” I called back, “Don’t you either,” and he replied in a strong voice. “I won’t.”

    ‘It was a one day cross-country trip for me and my wife to attend this event but those few seconds made it worth it. I left energized for this battle which is so crucial to the future of our country and the freedom of others.’

    I’m sorry if I’m reading into this, but good God.  Is it just the overly dramatic writing, or did they share a moment?

    Posted by  on  01/19  at  05:00 PM

  35. What Dobson fails to mention is that 96% of straight cowboys want to have over 500 sexual partners in their lifetime!  (The other 4% simply lack ambition and would settle for a couple hundred.)

    And as for 43—Hmmm. Note that the American Family Associations’ joining with ”with 43 other pro-family groups” to challenge Ford’s support for homosexual groups.  (Wasn’t that a Ford pickup Jack was driving late in the movie?) And what about the whole Getting Things Done (43 folders) cult?

    Posted by  on  01/20  at  10:16 AM

  36. We want to see heterosexual Westerns, heterosexual romantic comedies, heterosexual domestic dramas, and heterosexual action films when we go to the movies.

    Well ‘we’ want you to quit sniveling, control yourself, put down the torch and march down to the video store or theatre and get yourself what you want.  By the way, Brokeback Mountain is also a heterosexual story, the boys were free to love girls just not guys.  Freedom is both.  Of course your not free to admit that or free to even consider the facts, because some puritan witch burner told you your nuts were EEVIL.  Well he was wrong.  Again.  And you knew it all along but were just to ascared to say so.  too bad for you.

    Posted by HorsinAround  on  01/20  at  06:28 PM

  37. oh and I bet you didnt think your nuts were EEVIL the 500 times you masterbated.  Or is that EEvil too.  sheesh, you’ll believe anything wont you.

    Posted by horsinAround  on  01/20  at  06:33 PM

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