One of the big differences between real life and the movies is that real life doesn’t have to work at being plausible. If something really happens you have to accept that it happened, whether it seems likely or not. But in a movie, you can’t expect the audience to buy anything you put on screen just because it’s there. You can’t even expect them to buy it if it’s based on something that really happened. The audience is only going to believe it if it seems believable, and by “believable” I don’t mean “there is perhaps some remote chance that this isn’t completely impossible”.
The universe as we know it may allow for the existence of some hypothetical lesbian who might, under the right circumstances, find Ben Affleck appealing enough to give him a chance, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for a movie…much less two movies.
You’re right, of course. It’s the second word that makes the quarrel. I know for a fact that if I wanted to state that in my opinion I could get a bj off a gay guy any time I felt like asking, my opinion would be treated with nothing less than complete and uncritical acceptance; and I ought to do as I am confident I would be done by.
Leaving aside the chippy nature of my response, though, the facts are much as I’ve stated them: I have, personally, seen lesbians that I, personally, would not go near on a bet, even in the unlikely event of their asking nicely, and I normally figure that when it comes to an acceptable measure of how desperate a horny straight guy can get, I’m a pretty fair standard. And that’s just assuming that “getting” a man means persuading one of them to lay you. Some people have a more stringent definition of “getting” than that. QED, or something.
The universe, to my knowledge, does admit of Julie Burchill for a start (why it admits of her is another matter entirely). This former New Musical Express columnist, occasional novelist and presently AFAIK main-stream Fleet Street hack has spent part of her life straight and part of it gay, apparently on a whim, and I believe she embarked on another relationship with a man later on despite having spent a few years volubly denouncing both men and heterosexuality.
Hence I logically conclude that it’s not beyond the bounds of reason that a thus-far-self-identified lesbian could find some random man pressing buttons she didn’t previously know she had to press. Beyond that, it’s a case of how good the story is. Perhaps there ought to be another SDMB poll: How many gays (of either sex) have turned straight and preferred it? But I’d best leave it to someone who isn’t a notorious bigot to start it.
Chasing Amy is a very dishonest movie. Gigli is a very dead movie (we have the mod’s word on that). So, how many more “I shagged a lez” movies will Ben get the funding for?
But that man wasn’t Ben Affleck, was he? That’s the subject at hand here. Not whether any self-identified lesbian might ever end up in a relationship with a man, but whether Ben Affleck has any realistic shot at being that man. You don’t have to get out much to know that the answer to the former is “yes”. One college friend of mine has reidentified as bisexual and is now engaged to a man – but he sure ain’t Ben Affleck. I think the answer to the question posed in the subject line is a resounding “no”.
It’s bad enough that Hollywood can’t seem to allow a lesbian character to play out her span on the screen without falling in bed with a man, but making that man Ben Affleck is adding insult to injury. I don’t have a problem with him in supporting roles, but I have yet to see any evidence that he is cut out to play the romantic lead opposite any person of any sex or sexual orientation.