I don’t know how to react to the move “Blades of Glory”, where two rival figure scating men (Will Ferrel and John Heder) are forced to work together. It’s basicly a comedy about men being humiliated. “They lock legs and hold hands, bump and grind and plant their faces in each other’s crotch. It’s hilarious and unsettling: The joke, which deftly avoids gay baiting, is on straight men,” Gina Piccalo writes in the Los Angeles Times. Ok, so the joke’s on me. Maybe that’s why I’m not laughing.

Then again, maybe I will laugh when I actually see the movie. I might never know. I mean, why bother? I think it’s OK that guys cringe at the thought of touching another man’s crotch. It’s OK for men to be men. I don’t need to humiliate myself because I’m not in touch with my feminine side. “I found it. I married her. I�m good. I got feminine side 24 hours a day. And I need her.”

If audience reactions can be believed, there’s nothing more laughable or downright discomfiting than watching “manly” men cringe and squirm after an encounter with their soft side. And the examples grow more ridiculous by the moment. They wrestle nude (”Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”) or rub backsides and sing about “Guy Love” (NBC’s “Scrubs”) or accidentally kiss (Super Bowl Snickers ad) or snuggle up on an air mattress (”Wild Hogs”).

Yeah, yeah. Just let them rub backsides and wrestle nude. Have your joke on me. Just don’t expect me to pay for it by buying a movie ticket.

“Blades of Glory” largely works by lampooning the whole manly/nonmanly thing as utterly irrelevant. Brothers Jeff and Craig Cox, who were the screenwriters along with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, came up with the story four years ago after watching a figure skating routine on TV. They said they rooted the comedy in the characters and deliberately avoided making either one gay.

It’s their drive to win that ultimately overshadows all the other issues, a passion so consuming that they’ll endure the humiliation of performing together.

“They’re classic rivals and really don’t like each other,” said Josh Gordon, who directed the film with Will Speck. “What that allows us to do is play that line of a very uncomfortable subject. A lot of the comedy exists in that nexus. They never really go too far in one direction. They’re unwilling participants in this sort of effeminate situation.”

Source: Of Ice and Men