In our discussions for week eight, we learned about Rock Hudson. Hudson was a very popular sex icon in the 60s and had a major impact on the film industry. He possessed a lot of characteristics associated with masculinity; he was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. We watched his movie, Lover Come Back, and also read Richard Dyer’s article “Rock, The last guy you’d have figured.”
During Rock’s career, he was typically cast as the dream guy and male lead in his films. He had a deep voice, was tall, and exuded straight masculinity. However, this image was soon broken in 1985 when the press found out Rock Hudson was a homosexual and had AIDS. This image of the “ideal man” was not actually true and was, in fact, fictionalized. Sex comedies were soon altered once it was known that Rock was a homosexual.
I liked how the article talked about how after people found out about Rock being gay, the film industry produced more sex comedies. For example films like Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back you have a gay man playing a straight man who is then impersonating a gay man. I had to read that slowly a couple of times to make sure I got it correct! With this knowledge, I enjoyed watching and rewatching some clips from the movies mentioned above to see this idea played out.
Rock Hudson was one of the first celebrities to have died from AIDS. Other queer celebrities like Freddie Mercury and Robert Reed have also died from AIDS. After doing some research I found that Robert Reed, the Brady Bunch dad, had AIDS and was also gay. This is crazy to me because I grew up watching the Brady Bunch with my parents and always thought he was a straight actor. Reflecting on it now, I think Reed and Hudson have a lot of similarities in the sense that they both played pretty masculine roles as gay men.
Overall, I really enjoyed learning about Rock Hudson and how he left his mark on the film industry. He was an iconic actor and a well-known face of the AIDS epidemic.