Brokeback - Queer Argument

Mancuso's piece was very interesting. I enjoyed his ability to scope out the future in a way and predict what the film will come to mean to future generations.
For me, the most affecting scene of the entire movie is Ennis and Jack's first reunion after their summer on Brokeback, about four years after that I believe. Jack drives up to Ennis' house and they passionately kiss and of course Ennis' wife sees them. What a shock for her! I couldn't imagine what must have been going through her head at the time. What struck me about this moment, and what I think makes it queer (and this theme could also be applied to the movie as a whole in my opinion) is the forbidden, unacceptable love that the two men share. In a heteronormative world, gay men couldn't express their love openly, while straight people would likely have no issues doing so. Part of being queer is kind of being on the outside, being different from the typical heteronormative society, and in a way their bond is perfectly representative of this. Their relationship definitely fits that criteria, and I think Mancuso has the same point when he says 'Brokeback has instantly become translated in the popular argot as... denoting an impossible or unrequited love relation...' When he said this, Mancuso was referring speicifically to males using the term brokeback as more of a joke, but I think it illustrates a good point: that all audiences could recognize the relationship Ennis and Jack had was a different one from the norm, even if they weren't realizing it was queer. It was different because of how hush-hush the characters had to keep their feelings; because of how much danger and hurt could go along with loving each other. In some ways it was like any other relationship can be: one person was more involved, one person could be withdrawn, and a wide range of emotions followed the characters throughout. But it is queer because of how untraditional and boundary-pushing their coupling was, and because of how much trouble the two men had to go through while still loving each other.