Desire Diverted, or Maybe Freud Inverted, and Bros Before Hos

I haven't read Freud, so I don't know why I act the fool and use him to explain ideas floating around in my head. I do sort of know that he had this idea that at a certain age boys want to have sex with their mothers and girls their fathers, and that they become jealous and possessive of them. Yet, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, it seems that the inversion of Freud's idea is true, as least where males are involved: Brick's troubled relationship with his father and his friend Skipper has diverted his desire for his wife and inspired him to numb his feelings and cares with alcohol. I think it was Blythe who informed me that there is a theorist who suggests that homosexual desire is often sublimated through a third party in literature -- I agree with this observation. I find it apparent in Gatsby, within the relationships between Nick, Jay, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom, as well as in much of Tennessee's work, like Cat, Streetcar, Glass M, and Suddenly.

I don't know just what I can add to that discussion. I don't know enough. But it's something I am thinking about for a paper. I could just stick to Fitzgerald's novel, or try and have a discussion of William's works as a collective. I'm not sure how that kind of paper is received by the academy nowadays, but I suppose there's no harm in trying.

Loosely related, the oft mocked phrase "bros before hos" bears some significance here. Although the poetry of this phrase might give it a modern edge, the meaning behind it is timeless. It is also an idea used to support army life; you have to leave the one you are in a relationship with in order to live with and possibly die for an army of others. Now, in our capitalistic country, the citizens do not have to join any of the armed forces. But when they do, they must employ the BBH philosophy in order to justify putting aside personal commitments to lovers in the name of allegiance to unknown others.

Yet, the BBH philosophy has retained it's strict gender control in a few recent successful films. In Todd Phillips and Judd Apatow's most recent comedies the BBH mentality is taken to a new level of frustrated sexuality. Blythe mentioned to me that Telladega Nights is a good example of this, as well as Old School, and then as I got to thinking...Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad...etc. I don't include Forgetting Sarah Marshall, because the "Bros" in effect actually put their love interests before their relationship (making that a sure-fire post ironic film, Brandon? I'm not sure), and even the quintessential "Bro" in the film only puts himself before others -- everyone else in on the same level to him. As far as the other films are concerned, they seem to have BBH as a common thread. Sometimes the Bros in the movies must unlearn their BBH behavior, and come to appreciate their Ho even more than their Bro, as is the case in Telladega Nights and Old School. And it is usually a Bro that doesn't have (or doesn't get many) a Ho, or is tired of his Ho, see Old School's Beanie or Telladega Night's Cal.

Doesn't it seem as the though the BBH mentality is a rationale for the third party sublimation theory, as well as the inversion of Freud's theory? Certainly the BBH philosophy is present in Cat, as Paul Newman is overwhelmed by his self-pity concerning Skipper's death, and must have the love and approval of his Father in order to resume any sexual activity with his wife. He was active with her before, when Skippy was alive, and was there to keep his desire alive. His relationship with his father becomes the new same-sex component of the triangle of sublimation, with a nod to Freud. Big Daddy, indeed.

It's rather complicated and somewhat pedestrian, but I feel like I'm on to something.