Bromances

I giggled a bit the other week when US Weekly had, and I use this term loosely, an article about bromances. And as it turns out, US Weekly isn’t the first to investigate this new phenomenon. Google it and see for yourself!

For those of you not familiar with the term, these are male-male hetero friendships that are essentially like male-female relationships. These buddies are doing everything together – shopping, going out to eat, getting coffee, etc. They’re calling each other on the phone several times a day just to talk about trivial things. One always seems to take on the more feminine role and gets upset when the other doesn’t follow through with plans, call back or generally just acts like a typical guy. It would appear and is probably true that one has a bit of a man crush on the other, although it is always a purely hetero thing (or that’s what I’m assuming).

Now I’m not sure when these relationships became acceptable, but trust me when I tell you that you will notice them everywhere. I’m not saying I have a problem with this more intense level of male bonding, but this isn’t something that always existed. Sure, I’ve known a few guys in my time that paired off but this was usually the exception, not the rule. Guys have always seemed to gather in herds and it was almost questionable if it was any other way.

I have my theory on how this all started. It’s a combination of things really. I’m not saying that I at all think these bromances are in fact romances, but certainly it doesn’t hurt their case that being gay has become more socially accepted. This coupled with what I view as the decline of male-female friendships (this is a subject for a separate blog) and you’ve got perfect base for the bromance. You now have the perfect excuse for grown men to act like little boys. And you know what I say, more power to you guys!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bromance