This is my reply to an imdb.com thread about the movie Alexander, and said leader's sexual orientation. Most of the replies on the thread were along the lines of "OMFG he's a fanny-bandit gross!" or "I won't believe that such a great leader was a FAG!" or some sort of middle in-between. It made my head hurt. So....read on and enjoy.
Wow, all the bigotry is making my brain develop a tumor, much like my cellphone does. [Thanks to all the intelligent replies, however, in particular, FBforshort and Darth Maligna.]
Now, although I know that this subject has been beaten to death and then some, I just love arguing for the sake of argument, so now I shall...on a topic that hasn't been hit with a baseball bat.
Alexander is only considered 'great' because history is written by the winners in any situation--in world history, this happened to be Patriarchy, with a capital P. If history were written by women, or even egalitarian rule (*shocked!gasp*), it would no doubt praise Alexander's leading capability, but go on to question just why military victories and conquering other peoples is a good thing in the first place. He paved the way for the Roman Empire---oh, good, so he made it even more possible for people to be killed and then assimilated by yet another Empire in search of power, for the Celtic warrior peoples to eventually be defeated, and for the decline and fall of Paganism to Christianity, which eventually led to the Burning Times/Women's Holocaust. Wonderful.
The issue here is not Alexander's sexual orientation, which was Greek, if anything---the issue here is that men are always portrayed as the 'Lords of the Universe' and that stories about ancient times rarely focus on women, because the rulers of the world have buried those stories. Amazons become myth, most high school students don't know who Sappho is, and the Goddesses of Pagan times are demonized--Lilith, to name one--or turned into male gods--Janua Coeli, who became Janus (and now, if you look up her name, it lists her as the 'wife of Janus')--or turned into male saints--Juno Augusta, for example. Alexander was portrayed as a great leader, which he may or may have not been, depending on your viewpoint--but his mother, who was obviously a supplicant to the Minoan Serpent Mother Goddess, is demonized in the movie and not even mentioned in the history books. [By the way, kudos to Angelina Jolie for being so wonderful and gorgeous.] And all of Alexander's "I've taken you farther than my father ever dreamed" lines? Sure, he did. He surpassed his father's dreams. So where did he get the ambition from? His mom, obviously. His mom is the one who groomed him to rule, who made sure he did. And she gets treated like crap. In Troy, where was Kasandra? Neither seen nor mentioned. The strongest woman character in that movie was Andromache, and if you've read The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley, you know what a travesty that is. In all the King Arthur stories, Morgan le Fey is demonized, and Merlin exalted. Why? Because Merlin is male. And Morgan le Fey is a human incarnation of the Celtic War Goddess Morrigan. No, we can't have any strong female deities, now can we? That would threaten our precious and rather fragile manhood. In the history books, Queen Boudicca is seen as crazy bitch, and Medea is always portrayed that way. Medusa? Angry Bitch #19823982. Never mind her right to be angry.
Frankly, I could care less about Alexander's sexuality. While it's always nice to see guys kiss, and it chalks one up for the gay community (of which I'm a member, I may add), he was a strong leader whether or not he was gay or bi or pan. The point is that these movies and these stories put women 'in their place'--in the shadows, or demonized if they're given a front row place. The only Goddess mentioned is Aphrodite, who was by no means the strongest of them.
Someday, we'll live in a world where it will please people of all walks of life to see a lovely love story on screen, regardless the characters' genders and sexual orientations, and where people aren't bigots because they recognize that it takes all kinds to make a world.
Beat.
*bursts out laughing* Wow, I'm funny. Go me.
