I hope that after watching episodes 1 & 2 of Generation Kill that there isn’t a single person that could deny the nearly palatable homoeroticism in both the book and show. When reading the text and arriving at Wright’s description of the putrid and cramped quarters of the Marines Recon forces, I began to remember just how perfectly Gen Kill serves as an example of homoerotic tension boiling just below the surface in many male interactions:
“The tent reeks of farts sweat and the sickeningly sweet funk o ffungal feet. Everyone walks around in skivvies, scrathing their balls…The gesture is defiantly male…” (21)
“They strong-arm their buddies into headlocks and punch bruises into each other’s rib’s. They lie in wait for one another in the shadows and leap out swinging Ka-Bar knives…dragging the blades lightly across a victims throat, playfully simulating a clean kill. They do it to keep in shape; they do it for fun; they do it to establish dominance.” (22)
Gen Kill does nothing more than take the homoerotic tendencies of men interacting (because, remember, this is journalism dramatized, not fiction) and place them in an environment where it is inescapably visible. –Dozens of men, thousands of miles away from home and any heterosexual comforts they may wish to engage in. Sweaty, muscled men housed in close, hot quarters with nothing to do to pass the time than wrestle in their underwear. Anxious men, jacked-up on stimulants and hard rock music, raring to go serve a healthy platter of ass whooping. …I can feel the intensity just writing this… Yet the visual production makes the prescense of homoeroticism even more painfully apparent.
*Flash to Rudy standing stark naked in the tent, muscles rippling and dick swinging in the faces of his nearby comrades, then picking up a hundred pounds worth of gear and heading out to go demonstrate some physical dominance.*
Even the men themselves seem hyperaware of the situation, as they spew a never-ending stream of homophobic, machistic remarks to again and again assert their heterosexuality. Most notably, in episode 2,
“Man we Marines are so homoerotic. That’s all we talk about. Do you ever realize how homoerotic this whole thing is?”
This quote, (more than being an all-too-convienent evidentiary support) demonstrates supremely well how it’s not homosexuality or homosexual acts that makes things homoerotic. “…Do you ever realize how homoerotic this whole thing is.“–the Marine doesn’t just mean the constant jokes about anal penetration or the familiarity of the men, he means the whole thing.–War can even be homoerotic.
6 responses so far ↓
cupofjuice // 1 December 2009 at 3.15 pm
There’s also a scene inside the tent where one of the soldiers is playing around with a video camera trying to catch intimate moments behind the scenes of the war. Another soldier suggests that he’s got a gold mine of homo-erotic pornography sitting right in front him (followed by a slow pan up the body of an incredibly fit Marine), which is followed by a few jokes about Marine orgies (ha?). I think it’s interesting how much the visual style of the show reinforces the homo-eroticism from the book. Still, I’m not sure if Simon is trying to say “war is SO gay”.
tekken152 // 2 December 2009 at 2.54 am
I absolutely agree with you–I don’t think that’s what Simon is trying to say at all, actual “gayness” & homoeroticism aren’t synonymous. In fact, I don’t think that the presence of homoeroticism has a ton to do with authorial intent. In fact, I believe that these tensions are inherent in hyper-testosterone fueled male interactions like warfare.
ac07kn // 2 December 2009 at 1.33 pm
Once again, it is impossible in media to have a situation where testosterone and machoism doesn’t have homoerotic undertones. Yet I would argue that by exploiting such undertones and addressing them directly, the soldiers are helping to undo them. They acknowledge the homoerotic nature of the situation and make it into humor because they feel that their machoism is so apparent, homosexuality could only be a joke. By making it into humor I would argue the men are declaring their own straightness and comfortableness with their sexuality to such an extreme that they acknowledge possible gay undertones. However, it is important to acknowledge that they are constantly re-confirming their sexuality by showing dirty magazines featuring girls, discussing women in a derogatory context, etc. Often times in hyper-masculine situations where gay-undertones are present, this style is used to exploit them and prove the opposite. This can also be seen in discourses such as sport. Yet in the end, when confronted by his friends, the soldier accused of being gay denies the potential, and as such becomes part of the ‘gay joke’ that in effect, defines the male’s heterosexuality.
ddriscoll // 2 December 2009 at 3.06 pm
“Man we Marines are so homoerotic. That’s all we talk about. Do you ever realize how homoerotic this whole thing is?”
When I was first watching this show with friends we all thought this line was hysterical. Mainly because it was noticed by nearly all of us and we were shocked the show would directly address it. I also remember thinking that I wish they would tell the guy with the camera to stop saying “brah” all the time. I guess it is a show commenting on the situation, but part of me feels like it’s the show addressing people’s thoughts as they watch it. Just in the same way a movie will explain an unlikely situation just at the precise second your brain starts to asks questions.
emmas // 2 December 2009 at 3.40 pm
You really hit a lot of important points about the Homo-erotic themes in both the book and the media representation. I think it’s good that the show outlines these themes, and goes full well into presenting the world as it is or close to it.
Wether the humor of it eliminates the nature of it I’m not so sure. The fact it’s there at all means something, even if the machismo of the rest of their lives cuts the brunt of it. I think that any group of same sex friends in media have some of these undertones. Of course their not as pronounced or counted on as they are in the situation of this book or its representation, were not in life threatening situations. Everything there for those men is exacerbated.
In the line with acting like “real” men, did you know there is now a program where people in the armed forces serving oversees carry around cardboard cut outs of their loved one back home so they can maintain their romantic connection.
mdobright // 21 December 2009 at 6.26 pm
I agree. Warfare is a very homo-erotic endeavor that is inundated with masculinist overtones, however this is subverts the placement of women within the military and the marines. Within this homoeroticized space how would the presence of women alter male eroticized space.