Joe Bell the Movie and Straights Writing Gay Content

I’m not getting into a long story about this. I didn’t hate the movie Joe Bell because I like and admire the story of Joe Bell and what he did. Mark Wahlberg also did a nice job playing the part of Joe Bell. Joe was the dad who walked cross country to raise awareness for bullying after his gay son was bullied in school. I even left a review for this movie, which I don’t do often. It wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen, but it could have been so much better with authentic gay writers instead of straight writers. 

I’m going to link to Queerty just so you can read the comments from gay men. I’m seeing the same kind of thing almost everywhere so at least I know I’m not alone with my opinions. 

Here’s my review from IMDb.

• I can’t say this was a bad movie all the way around because I think the story of Joe Bell and his son is important to tell. However, when I started to watch and I saw some annoying stereotypes, and then I saw a few things that would never have happened in real life with a gay teen, I realized that this is what happens whenever straights write gay content. The film was written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry and they have no business writing gay content. At. All. So while it’s not the worst film I’ve seen, it would have been so much better if there had been gay writers handling this content. But Hollywood doesn’t seem to be able to grasp that yet. And I’m not sure they ever will.

Here’s more. I would still recommend watching the movie just to see the story of Joe Bell, as long as you overlook the issues with some of the content and the dialogue. 

The Wizard of Pride

Amazon E-book or Paperback

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