----------------------------Original message---------------------------- On Thu Apr 19, Ronald Tuch wrote: > "The reason the rape of women is not discussed with the same > enthusiasm given PF, is that it is too disturbing to consider, > it places spectator into such a moral and aesthetic state of > confusion that the only response could be denial and avoidance. > Ironically enough, I feel, that male rape is somehow less > disturbing: men can talk about it, joke about it, > and take distance on it. Disregarding the possibility that men perceive male rape as *less disturbing* and *more distant* than images of the rape of women, and with respect to Tuch's reference to Mulvey -- it appears to me that even before yer basic homophobia, there is also the stress for men generally in being *the object of the gaze,* which is part of Tarantino's game, IMHO. As we learned during the "gays in the military" controversy, "straight" men are not very comfortable being the *object* of anyone's sexual gaze -- men's or women's -- they own the gaze. To view Tarantino's (involuntary sodomy) scenes is to see/feel objectified and subjugated. Ray Ishigata Arts Analysis Inst Cambridge MA [log in to unmask]