Movies - TV
How Bros Reclaims The Funny Gay Sex Scene
By TYLER LLEWYN TAING
"Bros" brings a fresh queer narrative into the mainstream as it centers on two adults and the daily life of modern gay culture in New York City. The film unashamedly reclaims gay sex as something tender and vulnerable, overthrowing the long tradition of mainstream comedies making gay sex the homophobic punchline.
"Bros" boldly has audiences consider comedy’s tendency to only play queerness for laughs. Gay and anal sex have long been cinema's punching bag, which has added to the deeply troublesome idea that gay sex is emasculating or predatory, and mostly something to feel genuine shame about.
Mainstream media commonly views gay sex as more rough and juvenile than it is love, which could be why, in heteronormative comedies, it's an absurdist act. In "Bros," when Bobby and Aaron have one-on-one sex for the first time, their release of sexual frustration displays a roughness that holds the sincerest trust and vulnerability, proving that gay sex can contain multitudes.
Sex overall is absurd and embarrassing out of context, but the romcom plays this off as funny because it is funny. "Bros" successfully positions gay sex as simultaneously capable of being all things at once because sexuality itself reveals some of the deepest, most agonizingly human desires.