You already know what’s actually conservative?
We’re speaking extra conservative than Southern Baptists, Fox “Information” and the GOP mixed. You already know what’s that conservative?
Cash.
Which means large cash — company cash. It doesn’t do quixotic or exit on limbs. Cash likes secure harbors and certain issues. Its dangers are calculated and thought of. It isn't sentimental.
Hold that in thoughts as we ponder the destiny of the primary homosexual major-studio romcom. The lavishly promoted film, “Bros,” opened final week and carried out just like the Hindenburg did on its remaining flight. Which is to say, it went growth, an enormous, flaming catastrophe that racked up a measly $4.8 million in ticket gross sales — about half what had been anticipated.
It was a bitterly disappointing destiny for a movie with such a history-making pedigree. Billy Eichner, who starred in, co-wrote and produced the film, complained on Twitter that “straight folks, particularly in sure elements of the nation, simply didn’t present up.”
Some observers have taken to questioning what the failure portends for the way forward for LGBTQ cinema. One suspects it gained’t be fairly the style killer they concern. “Bros,” for what it's value, delivered just about all the things you’d need from a romcom i.e., tortured romance and razor-edged comedy. It was additionally raunchy as all get out, a frankly carnal cavalcade of lusty homosexual intercourse. Which was probably its downfall.
As progressive as America has turn into on LGBTQ points, many straight males nonetheless grapple with what was as soon as dubbed on this house the “primeval ick issue” of seeing guys make out. Women? That’s leisure. Guys? That makes some fellows squirm, even now.
That’s to not say it’s proper. It’s to not say it’s honest. It’s simply to say that it's. Which probably comforts Eichner under no circumstances. It ought to, nevertheless, consolation the remainder of us who help LGBTQ empowerment. It means that finally, the film’s failure might be little greater than a velocity bump en path to that aim.
As a result of cash is conservative, but look what it’s been supporting:
Oreos put out particular Pleasure Month-themed cookies this yr.
In 2019, Listerine marked Pleasure Month with a rainbow bottle.
The brand new reboot of NBC’s “Quantum Leap” incorporates a character who appears clearly non-binary.
They launched a homosexual man into Archie Comics — Archie Comics! — over a decade in the past.
And Janelle Monae. And Lil Nas X. And Ricky Martin. And so forth and so forth.
Clearly, cash not fears LGBTQ folks. Extra to the purpose, it understands that there's a market right here. And if some LGBTQ people are involved by the commodification and merchandising of their identification, it’s however essential to know what the actual fact of these processes suggests: that the battle for hearts and minds is over, and LGBTQ gained.
Granted, the revanchists on the political proper have but to concede. They're nonetheless pushing anti-LGBTQ legal guidelines like Florida’s “Don’t Say Homosexual” invoice and ramping up anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, as within the Texas GOP dubbing homosexual folks “irregular.” These are the folks who often champion large cash, however now, large cash sees alternative in inclusion, in order that they double down on homophobia as a substitute. The irresistible pressure of commerce meets the immovable object of intolerance.
In the long term, all the time guess on the previous. Notice that one other LGBTQ love story — “Spoiler Alert,” with Jim Parsons — is already set to premiere in December. Nor ought to anybody be stunned. That is America.
Cash all the time has the ultimate phrase.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist. ©2022 Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company.