Was he gay or what?

you're a *beep* idiot.

...why would he be looking at the water? you really shouldnt call people dumbasses i dont think i need to tell you why

Noooo, he wasn't looking at the water, he was looking at the guy because he had hair...hair on his head, hair in his armpits. He had color. He was normal. All Powder ever really longed for. To be normal. A fabulous, fabulous movie. The acting was great. Jeff Goldblum is one of my all-time favorite actors and Sean Patrick Flannery was incredible. I just love him.

No, he wasn't gay or straight or bi. He doesn't really seem to have felt sexual attraction. In the scene with the girl it was about sharing emotion and thought, the clasping of hands ("holy palmers' kiss" from Romeo & Juliet Act I) was as important as the physical kissing. Actually more important.

With Zane (if that was his name)--well, Zane is the epitome of everything Powder isn't and would like to be--Normal. He has friends, he can do physical things without fear, he looks normal and is accepted, even revered for his physical prowess. Powder has been isolated by his abilities and unusual characteristics and has never known companionship or friendship. It wasn't lust. There was a touch of admiration and a touch of envy in it, but there was nothing but pity once Powder saw inside the kid's mind.

You were right on one thing.... that was a gratuitous "slo-mo" shot the director obviously liked and didn't mind hitting us over the head with.
After all, the mind-set of the other people involved was such that just the mere looking at the guy cooling off would have been enough.
The actual scene, shot as lovingly as it was, leaves ambiguous the question, was it admiration or lust.....
And just to clear it up, the guy was not playing with his hair, although, he did have the longest hair, he was cooling down by removing his shirt, holding it under cool water and squeezing it out over his head..... something we have all done in the middle of a pick-up game ;)

1. It isn't just that Jeremy could read people, he could hear their thoughts, remember?
2.He's not gay. Period. The gym scene with Zane was admiration and jealousy, and the being touched by the teacher was to show Jeremy that it was ok. His grandparents were afraid to touch him so he was never held as a child or patted on the back when he did something right. It was a kind of first physical contact sort of thing, it was to show him that people really do care.
3. And yes, Powder is VERY well built in the movie, and good looking too! Yay!

I would take pure to be innocent or naive rather then pure/impure.

I would suggest that Powder was asexual. He had no feelings about sex either way. Human contact and love but not sexual love/lust.

Checking out others bodies is actually a very normal part of all adolescents lives. We all want to be the same or want to see that others have the same flaws as us. However we have been brought up not to stare.

Powder did not have the same social conditioning so there fore would not have realised that it could be miscontrued to be sexual. If he was asexual he would not of thought of it at all it would not enter his mind.


Agate

[deleted]

You mean like hetero directors avoid using young girls in skimpy and/or wet costumes? Have you missed every cheerleader movie made in the past 50 years, not to mention the fact that every horror/suspense movie tends to have the big-busted, childish character (often of indeterminate age)?

Audiences tend to break up at scenes they find uncomfortable. In this society, there is still an awkwardness to showing a young male in a possibly erotic manner, although it is practically a staple of the same type of film to show young women in the same light.