Hello and thank you for being a DL contributor. We are changing the login scheme for contributors for simpler login and to better support using multiple devices. Please click here to update your account with a username and password.

Hello. Some features on this site require registration. Please click here to register for free.

Hello and thank you for registering. Please complete the process by verifying your email address. If you can't find the email you can resend it here.

Hello. Some features on this site require a subscription. Please click here to get full access and no ads for $1.99 or less per month.

Lesbians and Bisexual Women, Test This Theory

[bold]Was Josh Hartnett a Millennial Gay Stepping-Stone? An Investigation - By Rachel Handler[/bold]

Most of Happiest Season is high-key gay in that it centers on two lesbians making out in a basement in secret. But there’s one (arguably, but not actually … you’ll see) low-key gay moment that struck me as particularly inspired on DuVall’s part. Early on, Harper’s uptight mom (Mary Steenburgen) is showing Abby (whom she believes to be Harper’s “orphan roommate”) around their home, the sort of stately redbrick manse that is a requirement for all Christmas-movie families.

The tour concludes in Harper’s old bedroom, where her kooky sister, Jane (Mary Holland), wrenches open Harper’s closet door to reveal a series of pasted-up photos of various nondescript hunks. None of the men are remotely recognizable, save for one large central photo of 1998’s hottest bachelor, Joshua D. Hartnett. “Looks, talent, brains, Hartnett’s got it all!” reads the poster, which has seemingly been ripped from a Teen Beat. Abby, trying not to laugh, breathes, “Wow.” Jane presses her face against Josh’s singed brow. “I know, right? Is it hot in here, or is it just him?”

The scene is meant to indicate just how deep in the closet Harper is and has always been, even going so far as to painstakingly decorate her own literal closet with photos of oiled-up men. But as I watched the moment unfold, it dawned on me that perhaps there’s another layer beneath that surface reading. Queerness is so often about subtext; I have to believe that writer-director DuVall, a queer woman whose second middle name is D’Etienne, would not place a photo of Josh Hartnett in a movie without imbuing it with multiple meanings.

After all, the two once co-starred in The Faculty, a movie about the importance of questioning the motives, and alleged species, of heteronormative authority figures. More important, they look very similar. I began to wonder if, by including this poster in Harper’s closet, DuVall was nodding to the fact that, for a certain subset of millennial women, Josh Hartnett was a quiet stepping-stone on the way to true queerness, i.e., lusting after Clea DuVall.

Hartnett’s appeal was obvious to anyone growing up in the ’90s with any sort of libido: the squinting eyes, the quiet brooding, the swoopy hair, the unibrow that indicated he did not care that he had a unibrow. It would be difficult for anyone, even megachurch pastors, to avoid feeling an attraction to Joshua Hartnett at his peak.

But the working theory I developed upon watching Happiest Season is that he was particularly attractive to young, confused gay women growing up in the ’90s. Again, in large part, due to the fact that he looked a lot like DuVall — who, thanks to But I’m a Cheerleader, was a burgeoning queer icon herself at that point despite still being in the closet.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 24August 1, 2024 7:36 AM

It certainly helped, too, that Hartnett’s movies were shot through with queer subtext: Both Here on Earth and Pearl Harbor are about two men who cannot be together, so they fight over Kate Beckinsale and Leelee Sobieski; he’s also in a movie about a British hairdressing competition. And viewed from space, Hartnett’s career arc is itself something of a queer narrative: He burned so brightly and then disappeared into exile in Europe, much like Oscar Wilde. No matter how you slice it, I realized, Josh Hartnett was the perfect gay gateway drug.

To test this theory, I reached out to every queer woman I have ever met and asked them, “Did you, at one point on your gay journey, have an obsession with Josh Hartnett?” “I didn’t know this was the question I had been waiting for all my life, but here we are,” said Jessica. “I was absolutely into him. I just rewatched The Virgin Suicides for the first time in 15 years and remembered how insanely into him I was when the movie came out. He’s in the Heath Ledger–Keanu Reeves–Tom Hardy school of men that women who are into women find hot.”

Nearly all my friends’ replies confirmed in one way or another that 40 Days and 40 Nights is a key component in Hartnett’s queer appeal — that the movie is canonically gay in a way that also turned all my friends gay, in the same way that all video games make people murderers.

by Anonymousreply 1July 26, 2024 1:56 AM

He was the beginning of a sexual awakening for many GAY MEN too!

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 2July 26, 2024 1:59 AM

Josh's sexiness is effortless.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 3July 26, 2024 2:02 AM

Josh is a rough trade fantasy.

by Anonymousreply 4July 26, 2024 2:54 AM

^^^^

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 5July 26, 2024 2:54 AM

[quote] high-key gay

?

by Anonymousreply 6July 26, 2024 2:58 AM

Unfortunately he has that large, disgusting black neck mole.

by Anonymousreply 7July 26, 2024 2:58 AM

I don't think he and Clea Duvall look anything alike?

by Anonymousreply 8July 26, 2024 3:04 AM

Maybe a little bit, R8.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 9July 26, 2024 3:08 AM

Maybe it's just the hair and the freckles.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 10July 26, 2024 3:09 AM

I never understood his appeal. He looked like a dumb guy from Montana. Not my type, I guess.

by Anonymousreply 11July 26, 2024 3:15 AM

Lesbos are so tedious

by Anonymousreply 12July 26, 2024 3:25 AM

You lost me at the overuse of the Q word. Stop that.

by Anonymousreply 13July 26, 2024 3:33 AM

KittyDyke says to Handler, the writer of the piece.

by Anonymousreply 14July 26, 2024 3:34 AM

a) what the hell did I just read

b) the author of the article is certainly on the spectrum.

[quote]The scene is meant to indicate just how deep in the closet Harper is and has always been, even going so far as to painstakingly decorate her own literal closet with photos of oiled-up men. But as I watched the moment unfold, it dawned on me that perhaps there’s another layer beneath that surface reading. Queerness is so often about subtext; I have to believe that writer-director DuVall, a queer woman whose second middle name is D’Etienne, would not place a photo of Josh Hartnett in a movie without imbuing it with multiple meanings. After all, the two once co-starred in The Faculty, a movie about the importance of questioning the motives, and alleged species, of heteronormative authority figures. More important, they look very similar. I began to wonder if, by including this poster in Harper’s closet, DuVall was nodding to the fact that, for a certain subset of millennial women, Josh Hartnett was a quiet stepping-stone on the way to true queerness, i.e., lusting after Clea DuVall.

This is how high functioning autistics think. This is how I think. Sifting through layers and layers of data and semantic memory searching for connections and patterns. The Cumberbatch Sherlock demonstrated it well.

c) hartnett is probably on the spectrum.

d) all neurodivergent people are drawn to other neurodivergent people, even those who do not know they are neurodivergent. The author was simply drawn to hartnett because she recognized a fellow traveler. It had absolutely nothing to do with her latent lesbianism.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 15July 26, 2024 3:56 AM

This is the author by the way.

I usually can tell in under a second.

She fell from the top of the Fibonacci spiral.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 16July 26, 2024 4:02 AM

By coincidence this is at the top of Deadline right now.

Can you hear the music, indeed.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 17July 26, 2024 4:06 AM

R17, here's the DL thread about that:

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 18July 26, 2024 4:09 AM

Josh Hartnett suffered from a crippling meth addiction for many years. It ruined what might have been a career for him. I've seen signs of him coming back to life, just small ones. We'll see.

by Anonymousreply 19July 26, 2024 8:02 AM

Sorry, OP, I couldn’t make sense of that word salad, which lost me at “queer”.

by Anonymousreply 20July 26, 2024 8:27 AM

Did he die?

by Anonymousreply 21July 26, 2024 11:04 AM

Hartnett’s decision to abandon Hollywood was more likely the result of a breakdown (burnout)

[quote]Josh Hartnett recently opened up to Details magazine in its May 2014 issue why he suddenly went from rapidly rising Hollywood heartthrob nearly a decade ago, to low-key indie actor. Much of it, according to the star, was because he simply couldn't handle fame.

[quote]"I was on the cover of every magazine," Hartnett, 35, told the mag. "I couldn't really go anywhere. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. I was alone. I didn't trust anyone," the Pearl Harbor actor confessed of his prime. "I'm still finding my way through all that."

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 22July 26, 2024 11:32 AM

He’s a hot piece. I wish we’d see more of him.

by Anonymousreply 23July 26, 2024 6:04 PM

No. The rapper Solé helped me realize I liked girls.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 24August 1, 2024 7:36 AM
Loading
Need more help? Click Here.

Yes indeed, we too use "cookies." Take a look at our privacy/terms or if you just want to see the damn site without all this bureaucratic nonsense, click ACCEPT. Otherwise, you'll just have to find some other site for your pointless bitchery needs.

×

Become a contributor - post when you want with no ads!