The construction of the figure of monster and the normalization of the population through it generates negative effects to the terrorist and to normal. The normalization invites an aggressive heterosexual normative patriotism; while the s o - c a l l ed monstrous sexualities are rejected and violence towards the individuals who incorporate them is common. Patriotism becomes not only a matter of nationalism, but also of sexual normalization. The bubble provides a quite lucid portrayal of how nationalism and sexuality are intermixed, and how this interweaving reflects in the construction of the homosexual as a terrorist monster.
The bubble begins with the first encounter between Noam (Ohad Knoller), an Israeli soldier, and Ashraf (Yousef Sweid), a Palestinian. During a checkpoint to enter in Tel Aviv, a pregnant Palestinian woman enters in labor, as they cross their paths for the first time. The film portrays Tel Aviv as a cosmopolitan city, which reminds a lot of other big cities with its cafés, music and soap stores, among others. In this context, Noam shares an apartment with Lulu (Daniela Wircer) and Yali (Alon Friedman). The former wants to be a f am ou s fashion designer and the latter works in a trendy restaurant owned by a couple of lesbians. Noam, when he is not called by the army, works at a music shop.
Each member of this dilly apartment has a different and relevant role in relation to how sexuality and nationality dialogue in the film. Noam and Ashraf are the main couple. The difficulties in living their relationship does not relate only to how their sexual orientation differs from their biological sex, but also to their nationalities, as Noam is a Jew Israeli and Ashraf a Palestinian. This issue is problematized from the beginning, as their encounter happens in a symbolic checkpoint. This intermediary and explicit zone of conflict, where the stillborn cannot survive a sudden and forced childbearing, suggests that their doomed destinies will not endure the difficulties imposed by this war zone, as well. During a short period, they manage to embark into an intense love affair. Ashraf stays in the Tel Aviv apartment, enjoying the cosmopolitan and excited life. Yali finds him a position as a server in the same restaurant where he works. Little did they know that such happiness could not last longer.
In Naslu, Ashraf‘s sexuality is strongly rejected by those who get to know about it. He has to return to Palestine, as his sister is going to get married. Still in Tel Aviv, they talk on the phone, and she is curious to know what he is doing there.
He reveals he has a relationship with ―a Christian… and a divorcée‖ (00:23:47), but not that she is actually a he. This difficult in assuming his homosexual identity to a family member exposes the prejudice that shall lead to exclusion in the Palestinian context. Later in her wedding party, Ashraf tells her the truth, but she cannot accept that he is gay. She says she understands that his partner might be a Christian, a divorcée, a Jewish, an Israeli, but not a man (01:28:10). Any identity is better than
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this sexual monstrosity that he reveals to her. She even asks ―Where this nonsense come from? (…). Why are you like this? Have you gone mad?‖ (01:28:07). She sees his sexual identity as a nonsense, a psychological pathology; it is madness and needs to be explained, cured. Her terror is such that during her wedding, she does not bear dancing with him, her beloved brother that has unveiled his true obscure and terrifying identity. Ashraf himself says that ―Being gay isn´t easy over there‖ (00:23:19).
On the other hand, in Tel Aviv, Ashraf has problems in relation to his nationality. He assumes a different name to work in the restaurant; he takes a Hebrew name, Shimi. The symbolism behind this name needs little explanation. As the characters explain, Shimi is a short name for Samson; Yali quotes, ―let my souls die with the Philistines‖ and complements ―history‘s first suicide bomber‖ (00:31:30) which Ashraf of Shimi will indeed become, a suicide bomber. Later when Sharon (Oded Leopold), Lulu‘s lover, recognizes him as Palestinian in the restaurant where he works, he has to run and go back to Palestine. Being gay is perfectly acceptable, but being Palestine is trouble. In fact, the restaurant belongs t o a l e s b i a n c o u p l e . The film portrays a T e l A v i v i n w h i c h homosexuality is an open and acceptable subject, but politics generates conflicts. You can be gay as long as you are not Palestinian. Yali provides an explanation as he says ―we‘ve always tried to keep away from politics‖
(00:52:27).
Finally, Ashraf is forced into a terrorist and monster role. His representation as a homosexual terrorist monster is a culmination of events that range from the sexual rejection he suffers from his family, passes through the national conflicts and ends in the assassination of his sister. The day after her wedding party, she is shot by accident by the police, while they are looking for terrorists.
Unfortunately, Ashraf sees the accident, but he cannot help her. In addition, he is being forced to marry his brother-in-law‘s cousin, since the latter, Jihad (Shredi Jabarin), saw Ashraf and Noam together, and as his wife cannot accept it. Jihad is p a rt o f a t erro ri st organization, and he decides to be a suicide bomber to revenge his bride. But Ashraf, overwhelmed by all the issues he cannot solve, takes Jihad‘s place.
Noam sees his Palestine partner before he activates the bomb. They explode together.
The rejection of his sexuality and the nationalist conflicts trigger a representation of Ashraf as the homosexual terrorist monster.
Accordingly, this homosexual monster identifies with the figure of the doppelgänger. The German term doppelgänger stands for a double living person, and usually represents evil or misfortune; a split personality, one visible to sociality, generally associated with the middle-class, and the other a demoniac side, the hidden internal monster (LOTTE, 1973, p. 109-110). Ashraf is a loved brother, but when he reveals his internal monstrosity, he is judged and condemned to death. His hidden personality is his homosexuality in Palestine, and in Tel Aviv, it is his Palestinian background.
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Noam and Ashraf‘s first dialogue alone already foreshadows the plot o f t h e story. Their homosexual relation is problematized and anticipated as literally explosive. Noam says ―We were explosive,‖ while Ashraf misunderstands him:
―I know it. When you explode something, like a bomb,‖ and the Jew explains ―It can mean cool, too. Explosive, explosion, explode. Good sex is explosive‖ (00:22:22). Their sexual intercourse becomes explosive in more than the metaphorical sense; it gains materiality when the reality of the violence that surrounds Ashraf envelopes him, and he becomes a suicidal bomber. This is a consequence of his double exclusion; one side excludes the sexual deviant, and the other the aggressive terrorist. Both are tied together in the production of the terrorist homosexual monster.
A close attention is given to the fact that he chooses to explode himself. His choice might be motivated to prevent Jihad from hurting more people. In fact, Ashraf avoids a bigger tragedy when he blows himself up in the middle of the street, and not among people; the only person nearby is Noam. As opposed to this, he might also be motivated by a real wish to revenge his sister, and by an acceptance of his social environment; if Noam is the Israeli soldier, he has to be the Palestine bomber, as their relationship cannot be realized. However, he changes his mind at the last minute. Whatever the case may be, the relevance lies in how he lacks alternatives and how external forces of power lead him into this doomed path, sexual normativity being one of these forces.
As I mentioned before, each member of the apartment embodies a different role. Lulu represents heterosexual normativity. In the beginning of the film, her roommates encourage her to finally give in to her affair, Sharon. She delays intercourse with him, because she wants him to fall in love with her first. When they do have sex, he classically does not call her back. This sequence is particularly relevant since it superposes the heterosexual couple to the homosexual couple. It presents Sharon kissing Lulu´s body, and then a cut jumps to Ashraf kissing Noam‘s body, as the pictures below show.
Figure 1: The Bubble (FOX, 2006, 00:19:15)
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Figure 2: The Bubble (FOX, 2006, 00:19:54)
This transition f r o m the heterosexual to the homosexual c o u p l e approximates these relations. By doing so, their relevance to the characters is equated. The characters‘ face of enjoyment is doubtlessly similar, as the pictures show. The similarity tells the audience that these relationships are not as different as normativity constructs them. As a matter of fact, the homosexual identity in the film might be criticized as being a reflection of heterosexuality; this sequence being one example of how the former is built over the latter. Nonetheless, Noam and Ashraf are able to have a much more mutual and happy, although shorter, relationship than Lulu and Sharon. Moreover, they do not perform stereotyped images of a heterosexual couple. Later, Lulu has a relationship with the shy Shaul (Tzion Baruch). Differently from Sharon, Shaul says he loves her, and wants to ―get married, and have lots of children‖ (01:14:13) with her. He tries to seduce her a while, but she never really notices him, until in a rave he finds the courage to talk to her. This heterosexual couple succeeds in their love story; they are in fact the only one.
The third roommate, Yali, also has a boyfriend along the film, the charming Golan (Zohar Liba), who is portrayed as an ex-soldier and a homosexual that is homophobic. He says he hates fags, since he is gay but not a girl. It is valuable to note that his boyfriend Yali has quite feminine gestures, which would indicate Golan‘s normative tendency, as he prefers girly-man while he is a manly-man. His contradiction exposes how strong the naturalized ideology of normativity is, since even being gay he needs to have a relationship with roles of woman and man. Likewise, Golan says things that embarrass the other characters as the following, which is about his homosexuality revealed in the army: ―I came out like a m an a n d t h ey t o o k i t l i k e m en . These are my brothers, sweetheart. We busted our asses together, fought terrorists in the Hebron Casbah (…). In the trenches, any minute some dog might shoot you from behind‖ (00:38:15). Eventually, Yali breaks up with Golan, because of his contradictory behavior. The latter´s manly-gay and patriotic behavior is in fact ironic.
What does it mean to assume being homosexual as a man? Or to bust their asses
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together and be shoot from behind? If you have a homosexual orientation, why do you need to be classified in the masculine gender? Just because one has a masculine body?
These questions return to how sex, gender and sexuality are not corresponding terms, although they are assumed to be.