The "too close for comfort" effect.

So I have dubbed it. About two months ago, EGM interviewed the creators of Army of Two, and as one of their questions, askwed whether there was more to the relationship between the two mercenaries than mere comaradery.

That this question comes up at all says something about the way our society is changing. Homosexuality is becoming mainstream, or at least is given some publicity, bringing the question of "how do I feel about this" into average America's living room.

It is my position that this has been subverted, and made into a championing of homoeroticism, rather than a question of it. Let's say for argument's sake that 10% of the world's population really is homosexual, if certain demographic studies can be trusted. Hell, let's say 15%. Why is every instance of brotherly affection, then, turned into a smirky nudge to your neighbor's arm?

Lord of the Rings is the best possible example I can think of for this. Some people look at it and say "It's quite clear to me that they're both gay. Totally flaming." You can take your pick of the characters, because, apparently, they're all gay.

I'll admit, this little clip drew more than a chuckle from me. But this reading of the film was not there until people made the leap of judgment that said "Oh, obviously." The thing is that, no, it's not quite clear. You're impressing stereotypes onto characters that you've been watching for an hour and a half. You don't have any kind of prescient insight into what's going on, you're just making a shallow judgment based on what your perception of gayness is.

The same holds true for quite a bit of Hollywood and by extension, video games with aspirations of becoming interactive cinema. So let's go back to Army of Two. The game developers put them in a tandem parachute, or have an animation of one slapping the other's butt, and everybody puts their hand over their mouth in shock.

At what point did we leave the logic train? A letter in this month's EGM insists that the senior producer for Army of Two needs to "grow up," that he was very defensive, that their love interests in the game are "Duh, each other!" Now, however defensive Reid Schneider might have been, why do you have to insist on their homosexuality? How does doing so mean anything different from insisting that they're not?

I'm interested in other people's opinions on this, particularly some of the gay members on the board, and to see if you think homosexuality is currently being overrepresented, underrepresented, or somewhere in the middle.

Jam it back in, in the dark.