News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media

300 movie not homophobic

I don't think reviewers were listening to the dialogue in this movie well enough, or perhaps they didn't understand the references.

Two of the male spartans were flirting with each other. In one scene, the youngest son of the general who has come to fight alongside his father in battle flirts with another warrior. They flirtingly joke about selling the other's "backside to a Thebian" - the Thebians lived in Thebes - the place that spawned the renown Sacred Band of Thebes, the homosexual fighting force - 6,000 Thebians crushed the military prestige of the Spartans (11,000 of them) at the Battle of Leuctra.

In a later scene, just before the younger man is killed, the other warrior comes to his rescue saying "I've come to watch your backside." to which the younger man lovingly replies "Not now, I'm fighting." The only way you could consider 300 phobic is if you perceived 7 foot tall Xerxes, who had a boomingly low voice, to be feminine which if you are effete and you wear make-up you probably related to him, but for masculine gay guys, the two flirting Spartans are the ones you related to - so the movie is fey-ophobic rather than homophobic.

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iam_gone's picture

300 movie IS homophobic

The simple fact that this piece of crap included characters that MIGHT be considered gay (a fact that won´t be noticed by 99.4 percent of the audience, considering how buried and vague it is) does not change the fact that this film IS homophobic.

If you apply the view that "a film that has gay characters in it can´t be homophobic" the same has to be true for all Wayans brothers film, Adam Sandler movies, "Cruising", "Braveheart" and so on and so on.

This "plot" about the 2 gay(?) spartans is hardly existing at all, you have to look for it with a looking glass. This is so freaking "hostel" it´s not even funny or worth mentioning.  

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michael's picture

I agree 100%. Especially in light of

how they "queened up" Xerxes specifically using homophobia to make straight guys in the audience uncomfortable.

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