As Woody Allen would probably say, I think whatever works is best. This is what I came after seeing "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" - afterwards I read a few reviews that criticized what they saw as WA's apparent anti-monogamy stance. But the character of Scarlet Johannsen's Vicky just completely smashes that criticism to bits. She's presented as the free minded liberal that's completely open about sex and standards, but she's not riding off into the sunset, either. As Javier Bardem's character tells Maria Elena, "when she finds the right one - not you or me - she will settle." People are just so different. I'm not sure we were all meant to be bound to one set of standards. You can't say that just because a traditional marriage worked for you, means it's going to work for me. Or an arranged marriage is inherently doomed (heck, statistics show that arranged marriages are actually more likely to succeed than most). You find out what works for you - polygamy, open marriage, traditional, unmarried, friendly - and deal with it.
Same with sexuality. Again, taking a cue from Vicky's character - "I see no need to label everyone else." I think people can choose for themselves. My theory is that individual sexuality is like thin steel. It can bend, stay, whatever - but it's overall flexible. Some people may be firmly attracted to one gender for the entirety of their lives, down to a specified set of traits - creamy skin, gray eyes, thin lips, whatever. After hearing all these stories about people who knew they were gay from the time they could walk (David Sedaris) or people who discovered a changing preference in their teens (my friend) - sexuality is be anything, man. It doesn't have to be set in stone. Would it be too crude to compare it to a preference for sandwiches? Some people can eat a ham-and-cheese sandwich, every day, for eighty years. Some people need variety. Some people prefer the bologna instead, and some people discover, to their amazement, that they want to switch after twenty years on the ham, or switch to bologna after the ham runs out (that was a prison reference). It's all good.
In the end, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. What matters is that you find at least someone, or some people, to love and take care of. And that's as simple as it gets.
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