Alexander : Let’s stop the gay issue all right already?

Many people have kept on commenting how much a flop Alexander was and always always the issue will mention about the gay side of Alexander. Well as for it being judged as a movie it was not great, it will not win the Academy awards nor will it be entrenched as a memorable film in the long run but it was watchable to my standards. I would just wish that people would stop harping about that fact, it’s not like its some new concept that Malaysians are unclear about or that people are screaming “Hey how come the censorship people didn’t snip all these out, don’t they know its haram, wah shiok we Malaysians finally get to see some homo action on cinema!” Nothing explicit came out of the movie (or has our illustrious Censorship Board already had their go at it?) but the implicit dialogues and pretty males Alexander eyes are a giveaway.

Firstly the fact is well known that most Greeks were bisexual by nature in ancient times and Alexander included (or maybe more so because he is royalty who is surrounded by male attendants and play mates) is by no exception a peculiar practice. If we judge them by our standards now, it may seem that all Greeks (forget that they were masters in architecture, the arts, governance, philosophy, religion and literature at their time) are hedonistic, without morals and debase beings that we should condemn. Yet we are not of their times and judging them by our standards leads to a bias of kind. True they were bisexual and not as most people falsely shouted in the cinema as ‘Gay gay oooo’. Alexander was married not once but three times but yet alongside matrimony he had his long time companion with him for which he shares a strong bond. The seedier side also shows that brothels housed young boys who services customers as discovered when frescos of these ruins were shown with evidence of such acts. This male to male relationship is not merely sexual but is also a deep forged friendship and love and often as Alexander proved may cause grievous mental conflict and a deep sense of loss if one is to pass on. Yet the truth of whether Alexander was really a bisexual, guess all that is buried in the sands of time, and yet we cannot discount the wide practice of such acts during his time.

Before passing judgement, watch the Discovery channel documentary on the life of Alexander and maybe you’ll pick up some points on Greek lifestyle. Read up more about the Greeks and their culture before we speak. My opinion of Alexander the movie, hehe Kimberly was right when she said Troy was better.

Resources
From history to eternity
Alexander the Great
Alexander Resource
MSN Encarta
Wikipedia Entry