Thread by @RottenInDenmark

It's important to know that "universalizing" the experiences of minorities is a way of erasing them.

Yes, this is an excuse to post one of my favorite movie reviews ever.

https://twitter.com/RottenInDenmark/status/1363879958817378306

When "Brokeback Mountain" came out in theaters, nearly every mainstream reviewer called it a "universal" love story. It's not about gay people! It's about forbidden love!

In his now-classic review, Daniel Mendelsohn argues that "Brokeback Mountain" is not in fact a universal love story. It is about the specific experience of the closet.

Where most star-crossed lover stories feature *societal* barriers to the protagonists getting together (their parents are against it, they're from difference social classes, etc), the barriers in "Brokeback" are internal. The closet makes gay people deny their own feelings.

There simply isn't an analogue to the closet in broader (i.e. heterosexual) society. Calling Brokeback a "universal" love story destroys the specificity of its central conflict.

This pattern shows up a lot when people from marginalized communities tell their stories. Members of the majority vacuum up the "universal" and "human" themes while ignoring the challenges protagonists face *due to their marginalized status*

Anyway, reading this review was a big moment for me and I've been thinking about it for 14 years. The article's paywalled but here's a link to the full text
ennisjack.com/forum/index.ph…