‘Brokeback effect’ observed

A recent study has found that 10% of men in New York City who identified themselves as heterosexual have had sex with other men, it’s reported here.

Compared to men who say they are gay, these men were less likely to use a condom and less likely to have been tested for HIV.

They were also more likely to belong to a minority racial group, be foreign-born and have a low level of education.

Seventy per cent of the men were married. ...

The study’s authors said the results had significant implications for medical treatment and public health programs.

The journalist who wrote this article has, for some reason, elected to “call it the Brokeback Mountain effect”, obviously with reference to the film of that name exploring the relationship between two gay cowboys in the Old West.

But why “call it” that? Has public exhibition of the film caused otherwise heterosexual men to manifest homosexual behaviour? No, as a matter of fact the New York study makes no reference whatever to the film.

So perhaps the journo merely wants to underscore the tendency of life to imitate art. Or of art to imitate life. Or something.

Well, before dismissing this as a lazy nod to Hollywood iconography, consider that the men in the study often, like the two heroes of Brokeback Mountain, live in a millieu where it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to identify as anything other than heterosexual. Hence the Brokeback Mountain reference is probably very apt.