These lines in your review struck home for me: "The missing piece of the puzzle is misogyny: Gay men are victimized at least in part because their alliance with women is seen as a threat to men. This is barely mentioned...because a problem burned into the human psyche is less amenable to political correction." I've thought about this and I would say that it's not a gay "alliance" with women that threatens; it's because the ability of gay men to call on and effectively use both the feminine and masculine, switching at will, threatens a culture built on patriarchy, where the feminine is "less" than the masculine. Any suggestion that a man could have a feminine aspect, as well as a masculine aspect, is the threat...and "a problem burned into the human psyche." That is the source of homophobia...and not just in Western cultures.
31
A most thoughtful review. It's a shame that BAM couldn't have arranged for longer runs. Deeply intrigued by Mr. Green's provocative assessments, I now won't be able to catch either play, or hear Eduard Louis speak. He's a marvelously talented writer.
Mr. Green's keen analysis contains this most telling line:
"I’m not very hopeful about men as a gender even when they have good jobs."
As a gay man I couldn't agree with him more. For the last roughly 10,000 years, on all continents, men have been inventive and tender, but too often, as well, presumptuous and abominably aggressive. The young M. Louis, a true prodigy, has begun to catch them at their bogus, long-evolving, entitled game. Let the deconstruction continue.
17
I trekked out to Brooklyn two consecutive nights to see these, first History of Violence, then End of Eddy. I was amazed at what I saw both nights and do wish indeed the second one was available to show at schools.
M. Louis was at a talk back after HoV, and I asked if his intended translation of Histoire was as “History” (as translated into English) or as “Story” (which it felt more like to me). His response was sort of an either/or, which reminded me of how that kind of ambiguity doesn’t exist in English, more the shame.
17