When Harry Forgot About Gay People...

I've stated before that When Harry Met Sally is my all time favourite romantic comedy. I've watched it a dozen times within the past year alone, but there is something about the film that has bugged me since my first watch. If you've never seen the film, the principal question that the film addresses is "Can men and women just be friends?" as the character of Harry initially believes that they can't be because eventually one of them will want to have sex with the other. You can probably already figure out what stuck out to me from this point...what about gay people? Yeah this was the 80s so gay representation wasn't exactly a common topic of discussion in entertainment. So how does the rule work then? Or is it just transferable so a gay man can't be friends with another man? Or does that friend have to specifically be gay also? Even more so I'm bisexual so does that mean I can't be friends with anyone? Because I've had plenty of friends who are men and women, some I've wanted to sleep with, some I haven't, but I'm still friends with them, and even if the friendships did fizzle out, it wasn't related to any kind of attraction.

What bugs me even more is how vague Harry is on how exactly the friendship is ruined. So you have one sexual thought over someone and it's done? Because very early on in the film Harry acknowledges that Sally is incredibly attractive, yet for some reason this doesn't count? Especially when he makes the point that it doesn't matter if you think your friend is attractive or not, you still want to sleep with them. Furthermore is what happens after the concept of sex has been thrown out there. Does the relationship become just too awkward to maintain? For this being the main theme of the film, very little detail is actually given to how it works.

Not to say any of this ruins the film mind you, it's just an observation that does bug me at first every time I watch it, that the entire concept that the film is based on is so flimsy, it's amazing that the rest of the film stands so strong.

-Danny