4th Man Out Essay
The movie “4th Man Out” tries to touch on how difficult it can be for someone to come out as gay to their family and friends, as well as the struggles of being gay in todays society. I found that the movie was rather two sided for me, as it was both easy to relate to and occasionally overly dramatic at times. There were several moments that really made me reflect on both my own and friends struggles with their sexual identity. The movie predominantly focused on coming out in a very “heteronormative” atmosphere, where the issues were more about understanding than acceptance. The beginning of the movie opens with a conversation between Adam (the protagonist and closeted friend) and his neighbor. The neighbor mentions that “it is nice to have
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Adam decides to come out to his friends in a less than perfect setting. He looks over at his still hungover friend Chris and whispers his name to get his attention. Chris eventually lets out a “huuh” at that point Adam whispers “I’m gay”, Chris just says “ok man”, Adam tries again “No - I like guys”, Chris again lets out a louder “huuh?”, Adam for the final time says “I’m gay”, at which point Chris gets up and runs to a trash can to puke. Chris explains that he puked because he was hungover, not because of what Adam had just told him. The whole scene was a little too comical for such a serious moment in Adam’s life. To quote some of our class material, the video “Coming Out of the Closet” by watchwellcast “Think about how long you have known that you are gay, the person you are telling will have to work with a much quicker learning curve” (watchwellcast, 2013, 3:05). When my best friend came out several years ago I was shocked, and struggled to believe it. It wasn't that I couldn't believe that he was gay, it was more that I couldn't believe that he hadn't told me already. It was fairly common for our friends to ask me (as his best friend) if he was gay, and my response was always “No, if he were I would know by now”. Similar to my experience, Adam’s friends struggle to believe and understand that what they just heard is
Adam decides to come out to his friends in a less than perfect setting. He looks over at his still hungover friend Chris and whispers his name to get his attention. Chris eventually lets out a “huuh” at that point Adam whispers “I’m gay”, Chris just says “ok man”, Adam tries again “No - I like guys”, Chris again lets out a louder “huuh?”, Adam for the final time says “I’m gay”, at which point Chris gets up and runs to a trash can to puke. Chris explains that he puked because he was hungover, not because of what Adam had just told him. The whole scene was a little too comical for such a serious moment in Adam’s life. To quote some of our class material, the video “Coming Out of the Closet” by watchwellcast “Think about how long you have known that you are gay, the person you are telling will have to work with a much quicker learning curve” (watchwellcast, 2013, 3:05). When my best friend came out several years ago I was shocked, and struggled to believe it. It wasn't that I couldn't believe that he was gay, it was more that I couldn't believe that he hadn't told me already. It was fairly common for our friends to ask me (as his best friend) if he was gay, and my response was always “No, if he were I would know by now”. Similar to my experience, Adam’s friends struggle to believe and understand that what they just heard is