Boondocks on "b rokeback"

Paul Johnson paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM
Tue Jan 24 17:21:50 UTC 2006


paul johnson
With the fear of Anthrax, condoms were probably standard issue for sheep
herders, along with the wide necked boots.

Laurence Horn wrote:

>> The full name is, after all, "Brokeback Mountain." It is not uncommon
>> for
>> topographical names to have "negative polarity" not is it uncommon
>> for movies to
>> contain words with "negative polarity."
>>
>> I do find the film was a bit daring in selecting a title that is so
>> close to
>> "Bareback," given that that is a euphemism for unprotected anal sexual
>> intercourse that is well known in American culture
>
>
> I wonder if Annie Proulx, the author of the eponymous novella on
> which it's based, was aware of that term.  Also, am I right in
> (vaguely) recalling that the mountain name is real?
>
>> --and I seriously doubt that those
>> cowboys carried condoms into the field in the 1960s (even though they
>> were
>> actually herding sheep).
>
>
> I'm pretty sure no condom was involved, at least on that first
> occasion in the tent.  Seems like their fingers would have been too
> cold to slip one on anyway.
>
> larry
>
>> In a message dated 1/24/06 7:20:53 AM, hwgray at GMAIL.COM writes:
>>
>>
>>>  IMO, the latter use of "brokeback" has been extracted from the phrase,
>>>  _ADJ as a brokeback mule_, a very common BE expression.probably two
>>>  days older than water. I was a bit taken aback when I first learned
>>>  that there was a movie entitled "Brokeback" anything, given the total
>>>  negative polarity of the BE term, which is sometimes dysphemized as
>>>  "brokedick."
>>>
>>>  -Wilson
>>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>

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