Tom maybe was not gay

isn't it great how such passion and intimacy conveyed,...w/o being explicit. d. kerr has such class. I can't think of a modern actress able to pull that off.

Viewers in that era were used to shades of gray and reading between the lines. They didn't expect to have things spelled out for them. And they knew the rules for phony morally-sound endings. Viewers today are much more literal.

"Coding" of 'unspeakable' material -- including queerness, definitely -- had a long and powerful history in the Golden Age of Hollywood, of course. Particularly after the Code came in in 34. Movies couldn't directly be about queerness, so they had to infer queerness, by inuendo they'd hope the board would miss in review or could be convinced was something other than what it actually was, and by the use of character elements other than queerness itself that viewers would associate, wrongly or rightly, with queerness.

But, in most of those cases, I think, they involve the characters who themselves are supposed to be interpreted as queer by the audience. And that's not happening in Tea and Sympathy. The emphasis in the film remains on the *other* characters' reactions to Tom firmly throughout, not on Tom himself. The things they see in him, to which they overract so strongly and try to eradicate from him, while, yes, certainly address the more general issue of a man's masculinity (or more precisely, the *perception* of a man's masculinity, by himself and others) fly utterly in the face of the film's entirely unambiguous treatment of Tom's more specific *sexual orientation.*

The film, of course, couldn't directly address the possibility of a character's queerness in the actions of that character him- or herself, but if the makers wanted to infer it then they needed to not so blatantly and consistently, so strongly portray Tom as entirely in love with a member of the opposite sex. Like I've said, Tom is without a doubt completely in love with D. Kerr's character from the moment we see them together -- he doesn't come off as someone needing 'tea and sympathy' at all to me, but as someone completely in the thrall of young (on one side, at least) love. And he *never* waivers from this infatuation for a moment for the rest of the film. It's all over John Kerr's face, all the time.

Even when the real topic of the film -- others' perception of Tom and the resultant pressure they put on him to 'conform' -- kicks in full-gear, Tom himself is not portrayed as someone who might fear he's queer. He's portrayed as someone who fears he's not seen as 'man enough' and fears he'll lose everything with the people in his life if he doesn't *act* differently in superficial ways. He doesn't show that he the cause of his fears comes from within, he shows that he fears others.

Not being 'man enough' -- even not beeing *seen* as being 'man enough' -- would seemingly be enough to 'code' Tom as queer or possibly queer, as questioning himself. And it *would* if it were left on its own in Tea and Sympathy, unmarked by another very powerful element of the film: Tom's obvious love for D. Kerr's character. Maybe some of the audience thought Tom was or might be queer when the film was released, but its makers had to be fully aware that the way they were so thoroughly, calculatedly portraying Tom's orientation, his sexual and romantic longing, would render the film a statement not on sexual orientation itself, but on the utter freak-out *others* experience in their perceiving of someone's sexual orientation and projected gender image.

Matthew

Hey, good points--Except I think you thought I was talking about Tom. I was responding to the previous poster's assertion that the ultimate upshot of Tom's travails was to demonstrate that BILL (i.e., Laura's husband) was gay.

"After all, there is such a thing as bisexual"

Why would you think he was bisexual though?

He likes Laura - is in love with her even, this would indicate to me that he likes women. Where does the bisexual thing come into it?

Because he's quiet and sensitive? Because all men who like women but happen to be quiet and sensitive must therefore fancy men too?

As to Bill's sexuality, it never occured to me either that he was gay - not once. So I was surprised to read so many respondents here postulating that theory.

Bill just seemed like a typical sports-loving guy who liked to do 'guy' things and hang out with like minded men. That didn't make him gay in my view. He was very physically and emotionally reserved with Laura though, so I suppose that may have been a sign but I still didn't put the two together. He just seemed like the kind of fellow who didn't want to examine his emotions every five minutes (I've know loads a men like that!).


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