Bromance Comes Out Of The Closet

Details.com:

Homosexuality, of course, used to be known as the love that dare not speak its name--until, thanks to the gayification of pop culture, it became the love that wouldn't shut the hell up. Now the man crush (a heterosexual male's feelings of platonic love for another man) and the bromance (when those feelings are reciprocated) are coming out of the closet in a major way. This has been brewing for a while (remember those "I love you, man" Bud Light commercials?), but it reached a high point in the already-classic drunken exchange in last year's Superbad (which also coined bromance), in which Seth tells his buddy, "I just love you. I just wanna go to the rooftops and scream, 'I love my best friend, Evan!'"

The fact that some guys now not only admit to same-sex infatuations without suffering a paralyzing identity crisis but announce them amounts to a seismic cultural shift. Until recently, if a heterosexual dude wanted to reveal something about his inner self, the safe (i.e., non-gay-seeming) option was to take a stand about, say, The Killer versus Hard Boiled. Now he can hold forth about his taste in men.

Read the whole story: Details.com

Comments

[1will]

Which one guards the sheep and which one does the cooking and takes care of the camp?

[rpence]

The "bromance" relationship appears to be the province of men who enjoy more than their share of white heterosexual privilege, i.e. Harrelson and Wilson. Men who don't benefit from that are assumed to be gay, I guess.

In other words, this story and the magazine it comes from is just a bunch of silly shit.

[BobSF94117]

Maybe it's the fault of the English language, which uses the same word to describe what you feel for your girlfriend, your grandpa, and peach yogurt.

[getoffthecross]

Married 17 years and I have a total mancrush on Barak Obama. I have no interest in his genitals or wish to explore something sexually, but every time I see him speak I think, "man, I would LOVE to hang out with that guy!" I could never understand the attraction some deep-seated homophobes had for Bush. He was a low-brow, arrogant-f­or-no-reas­on, ponzi, but the repubs wanted to have a beer with him like no other candidate before. I could, however, understand why people were unable to become impassioned about Gore and Kerry. This year is different. From the first time I saw his address to the DNC in 2004, I knew Obama was someone I wanted to be in charge of the country, and that feeling has never faultered. Call it what you want, but it's true and sincere, and shouldn't THOSE be the traits a presidential candidate inspires?

[johnmorgan]

I don't think that it's wise for a writer to quote Hollywood films and TV commercials in order to make a point about the evolving American culture. The author is confusing film with real life.

Films and commercials aren't written by your average American. They're written by above-aver­age-educat­ed white men living in Los Angeles, and they don't get to decide what American culture really is.

This article might be right about this subject; it might be wrong. I'm saying it's foolish to refer to film and TV and then say that's where American culture is now.

[chendri887]

That is such a silly article. It is riddled with stereotypes about how men relate to each other. I guess some men are that stiff and conservative about their emotions, so that if you a good guy friend, and you are a guy, you have to call it a "bromance," or bring some sexual element into it? What the heck is that all about?

[JohnFromCensornati]

Back some 25 years ago on DC101 in Washington, there was a shock jock called The Greaseman and he did a regular routine about how he wasn't gay, but if he was, he'd go for Clint Eastwood.

[PuddyKatz]

Lots of guys had bromances when I was in college. It was called "experimenting".

[NYC07]

Or being in denial .