Paulie: You think I’m a lesbian?
Mary: You’re a girl in love with a girl, aren’t you?
Paulie: No, I’m Paulie in love with Tori. And Tori is – she is in love with me, because she is mine and I am hers. And neither of us are lesbians.
-Lost and Delirious (2001)
In the first place, who started the labeling game? Did it come with the social responsibility of constructing a world where A should act like all the other As and that Bs should never get mixed up with Ds or hook up with Cs in an effort to organize all of humanity?
Looking back, Greta Garbo’s generation didn’t have that much people making noise over who gets to marry who and they didn’t bother as much as to how a specific group behaves. But remember that back in those days, not a lot of nonconventionals came out and spoke of their unusual preferences or rallied for a say in legislation as compared to today’s trend.
And yet, I still get upset over labels. And now that the movie is over, I can’t stop thinking about the characters (spoilers hereafter)–Was Pauline and her darkness really a lost cause, or were her trusted ones just too afraid to fight for her? And are the homophobics all to blame for this culture we have now or do we, the ones who do not wish to discuss about the deeper, more important issues, we who fear of being disowned of our parents, of being written off by our most beloved friends, we who would rather stay safe than go risk ourselves into uncharted territory, surely we also have a hand in the tragic endings that sexually different people go through?
I just find it unfair when people get so critical with people who identify as LGBTQ when in reality, those same people they scrutinize and persecute didn’t even go as much as ask, “So, when did you choose to be straight?”
breathing space 