itch.io

Ok, have had some time to think and I think I see what's going on here. Joe is stuck trying to prove his father wrong. He's internalized the fear that he can't run the garage properly, and that's turned into a need to prove that Joe can be a better version of his own father while/by being gay. Hence why it was such a point of pride to put up the sexy posters in what had been his father's office. But that's not achievable: Joe's father will never admit that, and that's not a kind of proof Joe can earn from himself. So he's stuck in a spiral of trying to be "his father but gay" harder and harder that doesn't have a way out. That's why it's such a problem to see men who "should be" or "had been" straight - especially ones that are fathers or father figures - come out later in life and have success in same sex relationships or dates: it feels like the opposite of what Joe needs to prove, that a "straight" guy is better at being gay than Joe is. Hence why when he got frustrated by dating and lashed out, it was AT the posters in his office, ie. the most tangible representation of his attempt to run his father's garage better by making it gay.

I guess the obvious implication was that Joe's father didn't just give him shit about being bad at running the family business, he gave him shit about his orientation too. Wouldn't be surprised if he explicitly connected the two propositions, as well.