"It is better—sounder both aesthetically and sociologically—to view the masculine pathos in films like Point Break in light of the tradition of heroically minded philosophy that runs from Aristotle to Nietzsche. If Point Break is homoerotic, in other words, then so is Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit."

Well, yeah, it is. The premise of the heroic tradition, going back to Homer, is that real life is lived among men, that meaningful activity is what men do, and that the only relationships that really matter are those between men based on mutual esteem. In the Illiad women are a necessity to do the cooking, to scratch the old itch, and to bear the next generation of manchildren, but they're otherwise a distraction from what really matters. The only male-female relationship we'd consider mature in Homer is between Hektor and Andromache, and Hektor is an unwilling hero, compelled to fight in defense of his home for a cause he does not believe in.

Among the Hellenes the homoerotic blended seamlessly into the homosexual. In Christian societies, there is a constant tension to keep the one from toppling over into another. As in Victorian England, the more patriarchal the culture, the greater the risk, the fear and the temptation that David's love for Jonathan, "passing the love of women," will take that extra physical step. Sex and emotional intimacy should be closely intertwined. Confine the female sphere to "kinder, kuche and kirche," and you make that connection difficult if not impossible between men and women. Make male friendships the only meaningful ones, and you leave them lacking consummation.