“Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don’t want cowboys to be gay,” said Larry McMurtry, 69 who has spent his career challenging the stereotypes of the West — and generally won.

Perhaps. But it wasn’t America as a whole voting for Best Picture last night. I think it’s more likely that Americans are just as divided on this issue as they were before the winners were announced: some like gay cowboys; some hate them; some don’t care; and some don’t go to the movies at all, regardless of content. Some went and enjoyed it (I did), and some stayed away altogether because it seemed like a downer (it sort of is). I’m not sure a loss to Crash last night really represents a broader national dislike of gay characters and themes. If Crash had lost, could we claim that Americans as a whole do like racism?

I have no doubt that box office plays a part in the Academy’s voting process, but if it was the lone deciding factor, the nominees for Best Picture this year would have been: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, War of the Worlds, and King Kong. Could anyone in good conscience say that Revenge of the Sith was the best movie of 2005?

And yet in 2005, more Americans went to see The Dukes of Hazzard or Monster-in Law or, god help us, even Cheaper By the Dozen 2 than Brokeback Mountain. It only just makes the top thirty.

That might lend some evidence to support McMurty’s claim — it might, in fact, make things look a whole lot worse. Except the other four films nominated as Best Picture this year were considerably further down the list. And Brokeback has done exceptionally well, given its subject matter and sometimes heavy tone. The films above it in terms of box-office gross are mostly big-budget action, horror or comedy — films that almost always do better at the box office. That Brokeback has done as well as it has seems to indicate that maybe Americans either do want cowboys to be gay, or at the very least they don’t care anymore.