Yentl and Gay Marriage
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Yentl
Island-Publius — 16 years ago(May 09, 2009 11:01 PM)
The movie is deeply and sincerely religious. Beautifully done all around.
Although it was released 26 years ago, it's interesting that the producer, director, and star Barbara Streisand creates a scene that is as simple and powerful a dramatization against gay marriage as your likely to find in a film.
In the scene where she reveals herself as a woman to Avigdor, he begins to argue that b/c the marriage between her and Hadass was witnessed by rabbis, it must somehow be licit.
Yentl - "Witnessed what, a marriage between two women?"
Avigdor - "No, according to divorce proceedings it is still a . . . "
Yentl - "No Avigdor, according to . . . GOD, it is not a marriage!"
I'd be interested to know if Babs chalks this up to being true to the character, a lag in her enlightenment on this topic, or that she really didn't give the issue or dialogue much thought.
Regardless, can anyone imagine her making the same scene today?
Oh well. Destroyed is one more mainstay of Western Civilization and human society in general. I'm sure in another 25 years, they'll be a bunch more un-PC things we'll find in today's Hollywood movies.
God help us. -
judas-remains — 16 years ago(May 28, 2009 01:16 PM)
I've always hated complaints like this, and conservatism in general. The whole practice is trying to ensure that society never truly moves forward, only stays the same undermining box of Cracker Jacks that has White Heterosexual Men Only on the side. Racism, sexism, bigotry, beloved ignorance are all mainstays of Western civilization and human society in general, but y'know, those things are bad, so we should move past them, we should be able to move past them.
All men and women are created equal, we both get pushed through the same kind of sexual organ, most likely get our little soft heads crapped on while doing so but as soon as we are done with all that, the good ol' Western civilization and human society start drawing lines all over us telling us how we are no longer equal. Some of us are better because of the amount of melanin in our skin, some are better because they were born twelve miles east of the other, and others are better still because the generation that came twice before them moved slightly faster into that area then others. Western Civilization and human society are wrong and will continue to be wrong until all are equal.
I enjoy have sexing with people that in my opinion, have much nicer furniture between their legs, but that's me, I'm a snob in that way, but I fully respect the rights and wants of others. God is great, God loves us and we should love him, but why would he arbitrarily hate homosexuals? It doesn't make any sense at all, from even the most psychotic perspective. If he was legitimately concerned that one gender would randomly go "Hey! I know I've been a fan of my wife for like a really long time, but I desperately need Ted in Small Appliances to check my plumbing." then why make not put a hinge in there somewhere just to gum up the works? Just a little trap door that says "N/A" like on work applications when you don't have a place to live because instead of being concerned about the ever rising homeless population, you've got psychotic people out there worried about who's plumbing's being worked on by who.
God is love, and I don't mean that in the New Age-y way, but in the way that God loves us, and all he ever wants from his children is that they love and respect each other, he doesn't put qualifications or height requirements on it. He just wants us to be our brother's keeper, there was no greater punishment in the Bible then for the one that was not. The Ten commandments are written so as to establish a base level of civility for human society, and never have any of those commandments been questioned on a societal level except by those who are God-fearing in title.
How could anyone use the lord's name in vain more then when they are calling for the mistreatment, the subjugation and inequality of another? -
lroy77 — 14 years ago(July 07, 2011 06:53 PM)
I agree.
But the marriage wasn't really a gay marriage (as I understand the term). If it was, then Yentl would've revealed herself to be a woman to Hadass after the ceremony.
But she continued to pretend a man, known only to herself and God, SOLELY to be able to continue her studies. In fact toward the end, she did have the option of marrying Avidor but didn't because she still wanted to study. If it wasn't for Yeshiva, she would've married him. -
TwinkiePon — 12 years ago(September 25, 2013 11:45 PM)
I think it's more of a historical thing than Babs' own feelings. Back at the turn of the century gay marriage was not even thought of - for a woman to say she wanted to marry another woman would be like her saying she wanted to give birth to a dog - it was just seen as that unnatural. It's only fairly recently we've even begun to accept openly gay couples and gay marriages (and some don't accept them yet).
I think from a historical standpoint it is an accurate portrayal of how Yentl would have thought. If she were living in today's time perhaps it wouldn't be such a big deal, but then if Yentl lived now she could join a Reform temple and study the Torah and Talmud to her heart's content and there would be no movie.