I watched the movies Is It Just Me? and Bros this weekend. Both are gay movies. (I watched on Amazon Prime.) You should watch them.
While fairly cliché, in the love story rom-com genre sense, they are both good. I identified with both the main characters. Both aren’t the stereotypical “gay hunk muscle 20s” guys (though there are plenty of those in both movies) but are regular guys who struggle to fit into the gay world. In Bros, it’s more apparent because he has a line that’s something like “I don’t feel like I’m good enough for you, or ever will be your type.”
Perhaps I’ve been in same hetero-normal world so long the gay cliché is also my standard, and thus fitting into it, and that I don’t look like that, affects me. I’m older, I’m semi-hairy, I’m smaller. When I discovered the term “otter” a few years ago, it clicked: That’s who I am. I never fit in to the other genres of gay world terms. But once I found my identity, it was easier to communicate that’s who I am; it was easier to have a mental model of myself. I fit somewhere in the world. Also a line from Bros: “You’re not afraid to take up space in the world.” The line is referring somewhat to being in the closet, but just having an identity helps me exist there.
But it also fits me not mentally accepting guys fawning over me. In discussing this topic with a few guys, it’s perhaps the focus. On CB, there’s a magnifying affect on gay/bi life. In my real life, I’ve probably come across a few guys that thought I was hot, but even less could say something, or would say something since they thought I was straight. But on CB, all the guys are. And they either watch, comment and life, or move on. So it’s disorienting to have so many compliments compared to my real life, but it’s not a fair comparison.
I’m not gay. But borrowing the gay world terms for identification seems fine. And since there’s less realness in the world about being bisexual, having to borrow from the other two worlds seems okay. In Bros, there’s several lines from all the LGTBQ+ about their worlds.
It’s a shame it was a flop in the theaters, but it makes sense. (It cost $10 million to make, made $15 million. It was labeled a bomb because it only make $5 million on opening weekend. :eyeroll: ) As the movie points out, there isn’t a market for it. 7.1% of the US population of 335 million (23 million) identity as LGTBQ+. But it’s a success. It made a profit, and if the industry learns better how to control market distribution, and not rely upon opening weekend theater returns to label a movie, there should be more gay movies. There could even be bisexual, lesbian, trans, questioning, and the rest of the rainbow movies. (No, not that kind.) And they could turn a profit.