Background
Although there are several similarities between a gay individual living western countries and a gay individual living in countries in Asia, some literature state that there are a lot of differences between the two groups of gay people. In this paper, those differences will be discussed because it can really help society understand more about gay people. Some of the things we could target here are the gay people’s uniqueness, identity, intercultural communication issues between gay people in the West and gay people in Asian countries.
Review of Literature
There were a lot of things that I discovered about gay people. One particular thing I discovered was their reluctance to show their feminine side to other people. It is known that gay people often suffer from discriminative scenarios. Oftentimes their societal rights are neglected because of their identity and personality. So to avoid the harsh environment predominant among gay people, most of them tend to decide to just hide their real identity.
There are also other reasons why gay people tend to distort their own image. Another reason is a process they call “straight-acting”. This is simply gay people’s act of pretending to be straight men even though they know to themselves that they are not. They do this because they want to conform as much as possible to the sociocultural norms that society has imposed on straight people. They might have felt that they have to follow such norms no matter what, even if it means hiding their real identity. With straight-acting, they may be able to decrease occurrences of discriminative scenarios. However, there will most likely be consequences.
They may feel more lonely and incomplete because they simply cannot act the way they want to whenever they are with other people. Gay people are often outspoken, talkative, sociable, bold, and most importantly, very concerned when it comes to their appearance. They should be undeniably sad because they cannot portray all of these things which describe what they really are as a person.
There are a lot of things that could be discussed between an Asian gay and a western gay. Oftentimes, it is the western group of gay people that discriminates and tells bad things about Asian gay people. They often address Asian gay people’s whiteness as a fatal flaw of being gay since one of the hallmarks of being gay is their almost exaggerated concern for beauty. Asian gay people are also often perceived as unattractive and undesirable across mainstream gay communities of the world. However, they do have commonalities. Both Asian and western gay people are usually termed as bitchy, pissy, queen and sissy.
Comparison
Eguchi (2011) focused more on the individual aspects of gay people while Han (2006) focused on the perception of other people about Asian gay people. A concrete example of Eugichi’s concept about Asian gay is his description about Sissyphobia and straight acting among gay people. He strongly discussed these two topics. He also touched some topics about the differences between Asian and western gay people a little bit although he focused more on the auto-ethnographic explorative quality of his study. A concrete example of Han’s research concepts about gay people is his discussion about the perception of Europeans about Asian gay people; they think that Asian gay people are exotic and special. They also treat Asian gays as if they are real girls.
Film Analysis
I will not focus too much on the production aspects of the film such as the actors’ greatness and acting skills. I would focus more on the things they want to portray or the message that they want to convey to the audiences. I honestly expected that this movie will only be watched by gay people, regardless whether they are western or Asian.
I was surprised that there were also males and females who watched the movie and enjoyed it. Noah’s Arc is not a religious type of movie. It’s a movie that tells a story of two gays (Noah and Wade) who are about to get married. Most of the characters in the movie were gays and so I had plenty of opportunities to review their moves and behaviors. For example, by watching that movie, I was able to prove, at least based on that movie, that Sissyphobia may not always exist among gay people contrary to what Eguchi explained. Well, I did not do the similar type of research that he did so I think that my hypothesis could not be considered valid.
I analyzed the film and I can see that it could serve as a window into the gay world. Gay people will always be interesting subjects for graduate and undergraduate researchers. Based on the quality and depth of the movie, I can say that it could be a good starting point for researchers. It will always be a better and more practical idea to watch a movie that describes the life and behavior of gay people first before they conduct interview sessions and embark on a quest into a gay community.
Same sex marriage is not yet a legal practice during the time that the Noah’s Arc was filmed so many people did not find the movie as realistic as it is these days—because of the approval of the same sex marriage bill a couple of years ago. It was very easy to determine that the actors and producers of the film have a very deep and extensive understanding of the behaviors of a gay person. That understanding materializes the character that we saw in the film.
While I was analyzing the film, I came up with a conclusion that one of the major aspects of this film that made it significant for studying gay people is each character’s major drama. Each of them has their own dilemma and they have to find a way to deal with that dilemma. For example, there is a part in the film that shows how Noah and Wade fight with each other. They often fight over the simplest things. I saw this as a window of opportunity to understand gay people more. I thought that they too could fight over very little and simple things. Ricky was the one who showed what gays are really are and are made of in the movie. He possesses a very sociable aura. He is talkative, he is very sociable, and he is very concerned with his beauty. All of these are common things among gays but he presented it in a remarkable way.
Ultimately, I saw this little message in the movie. It’s like saying that gays are usually successful people. Almost all of the gay people I saw in the film have the capacity to feed and provide for themselves, even for their partners. These are the reasons why I think the movie is a clear window into the world of gay people.
Works Cited
Ayres. Narrative Turn or Blind Alley. Qualitative Health Research. 1999
Eguchi, S. Negotiating Sissyphobia. Journal of Men’s Studies. 2011.
Han, C. Geisha of a different kind: Gay Asian Men and the Gendering of Sexual Identity. Philadelphia, PA. Temple University Department of Sociology. 2006.
