Cary Grant is gay, hypothetically

[trochee]

a [female] friend said today, of Cary Grant "oh, I was so glad to hear that he was bisexual -- if he was gay, it'd spoil my fantasy so much."

Well, nothing stops the linguist. It's interesting that [at least for this one example] changing Cary Grant's sexuality is much harder to change in a hypothetical than (for example) the other barriers to the enaction of her fantasy: that he would at this moment be 100 years old, and that he is currently, um, dead.

And yet, his sexuality is something that is not a matter of direct record (while his age is). It seems (upon introspection) that hypotheticals about age and status among the living are easier to reverse in imagined worlds than personal tastes, even if we have very little evidence on the personal tastes, and the odds of my friend having luck convincing a gay man to explore bisexuality (while not very good) are better than her luck at reviving the dead.

Comments

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

I think your friend was being very considerate. Not only would she like to resuscitate and rejuvenate Cary Grant in order to have her way with him, she would like him to enjoy the experience. I suspect that she feels (quite reasonably) that he would have no objection to being brought back to life, and to the height of his prowess, but that if he were exclusively homosexual, he might not want to go along with her other plans for him.