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Girls who like Boys who like Boys – Ethnography of ... - Yuuyami.com

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it at all, but simply as a regular movie night between friends. Red had such<br />

intensely fascinated and positive reactions to the movie and the very subtle<br />

homo-eroticism displayed in it, that I was astonished: She had told me that she<br />

had several very close gay friends, <strong>who</strong> are affectionate with each other in<br />

bars, but that this had never had such an impact on her as the few hints and the<br />

one kiss in Hamam did. Partly this was due to the fact that she found both<br />

male protagonists attractive, partly because the plotline hides the homosexual<br />

relationship until the near end <strong>of</strong> the movie when viewed the first time, and<br />

most <strong>like</strong>ly because she neither saw a typical gay stereotype in either <strong>of</strong> the<br />

protagonists, nor was it at the heart <strong>of</strong> the plot. In other words, though the<br />

viewer does discover the existence <strong>of</strong> it, the movie itself does not center<br />

around the relationship in question, nor does either male protagonist fall into a<br />

social stereotype <strong>of</strong> “gay” behavior, and, most importantly, the relationship <strong>–</strong><br />

as it is relatively marginal to the movie <strong>–</strong> is not embedded within the usual<br />

sociopolitical discourse and politicization <strong>of</strong> homosexuality.<br />

But apart from all this, what fascinated me was the gut reaction Red<br />

had to this movie, and I started to suspect that it may hold some parallels to<br />

that initial emotion instigated by the first slash fic a fan ever reads. I asked her<br />

whether she would not write a stream <strong>of</strong> consciousness for me, illustrating<br />

these raw feelings incited by the movie, and am quoting it in the following:<br />

touch-sense<br />

Freedom, express emotions, release the cosmic need,<br />

unrestricted by society and self-consciousness<br />

Beauty and beauty—the triumph <strong>of</strong> exquisite and unreal<br />

115

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