Brick wasn't gay. Let it go!

orignlsinz:

Despite all the heckling that you've received on this website -- and I admire your restraint in not responding in kind -- the statistics that you give are actually in line (more or less) with other studies. For instance, the famous Laumann study of 1994 ("Sex in America") put the figures nationally at 2.8% for men and 1.4% for women (although higher in the bigger cities). Even PBS (not a conservative source), years ago, in a program called "The First Measured Century," put the figure at 3-5%. In the aggregate, the statistics tend to be about 2-5%, but perhaps on the lower side of that. (Kinsey actually said that 4% of men were exclusively homosexual and 2% or women; the 10% figure is highly questionable, referring to periods of three years or more, including people who were temporarily involved in the behavior, like men in prison).

Part of the problem here (and on this thread, and even regarding "Cat") is by what criteria do you define people? Do you define them by feelings, feelings that may shift over time and perhaps have a psychological basis, or do you define them by behavior, which is how this used to be understood, and which is the only really empirical measure? If you're going by the latter -- people who with some regularity engage in this behavior (which is all that really matters, I think, in terms of how it affects society) -- your statistics are probably fairly close to the truth.

When I first saw this movie I was a teenager who knew nothing about the story or even that much about Tennessee Williams. Even if they cut out all the gay references, to me the gay subtext was really obvious, especially all the talk about Skipper.

As for the numbers, even in "liberal" countries like the UK and The Netherlands the gay population is about 4%, so 10% seems to be an exaggeration. But that's really beside the point. The play was written by a gay man about a closeted gay man, so it's not strange if some gayness can be detected in the movie.