Oh, this seems to have provoked quite many replies.
Anyway, I wanted to hear your thoughts before saying mine, and I must say I'm on the same lines along with many people here: there was no hidden gay agenda, people see what they want to see and the concept of friendship between males is crooked nowadays.
In the books the male characters show their affection and love to each other too. When in the Houses of healing it is said that Aragorn kisses Merry, I don't think anyone reading the book regards it as a homoerotic scene, or more importantly, as a romantic kiss.
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Originally Posted by alatar
Like when viewing clouds, people see what they want. Having watched LotR many times now, I've noticed that PJ is very anti-Penguin.. Have you seen even one penguin in the whole 12+ hours of film? Pretty clear, the statement that he's making...
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Ahh! I KNEW there was something terribly wrong with the movies! I knew!
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Originally Posted by Rune
The books clearly states that there is love between the different male charachters, it was love for Aragorn that made the grey company and others walk the path of the dead and so on.
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I agree. Legolas (at least) mentions his love for Aragorn a couple of times. First he says that all that know Aragorn love him in some way (he knows Aragorn so that clearly includes himself) and later when he speaks with Gimli about the restoring of Minas Tirith he says that it's also for "love for the Lord of The White Tree". I've never seen this as homosexul, and given the contexts, I don't think anyone else can see it either. (No, not even a homophobic teenager boy ... Or maybe actually, but the point was that it's not certainly the first thing to pop in the mind of an average reader.)
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Originally Posted by Rune
Of course it could be that Tolkien belives that love in its purest form only can be shared betwen two men! Not necesarily sexual. . . .
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I think he actually says so in the letters, but I'm not sure.
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Originally Posted by Zali
It's almost as though true friendships don't really exist for the media...and when they do, they're always between girls.
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Yes, but the friendships between girls are portrayed as superficious and the way that they can break any time when the girls fall in love with the same guy...
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Originally Posted by Boro
I believe it's better understood in other parts of the world, as the common greeting method in Europe (whether it's a male greeting a male or not) is to kiss him on the cheeks.
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Well, yes, maybe southern Europe, but not in Finland. Though there is some cultural difference. I once watched an american reality tv show (the format being something like 10 straight guys and 10 gay guys and a woman who has to pick a straight one) where there were two men that had to sleep in the same room and there was only a pair bed in the room. What do these guys do? They flip a coin which one has to sleep on the floor. Really, I think that's ridiculous. I bet in Finland the attitude would have been something like "I can sleep beside you, but if you do something guy I'll butcher you".
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Originally Posted by Brinniel
(apparently if one male hugs another male, they're gay)
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That's so true. A friend of mine (straight guy) said it was one of the greatest moments in his life, when parting from his friends when changing school, his best friend came and hugged him. This friend of mine has grown up in a "men can be just friends and hug each other" -atmosphere and he said it's really distressing that guys can't hug their friends, since hugging is for him a natural way of showing affection. Sadly, this friend of mine is definitely an exception among the guys here in Finland.