Bromance

Recently I was looking through some review guides, trying to pick a film to watch with girls over the weekend. A recent movie release that caught my eye was “Man I love you” starring Paul Rudd (Phoebe’s boyfriend Mike from Friends). When asked to describe what the film was about, quite a few of the critics bandied about the term “bromance”. I knew what it meant but wanted a proper definition of the term, if it existed. So naturally I googled it... as you do, lol.

Definition: Coined in the 1990’s by Editor Dave Carnie by combining the word ‘brother’ and ‘romance’. Refers to a man-crush; an intimate but non-sexual relationship between two men.

Some further points that sounded interesting have been borrowed from Wikipedia:
Aristotle described a concept similar to the bromance as early as 300 BCE, writing, "It is those who desire the good of their friends for the friends' sake that are most truly friends, because each loves the other for what he is, and not for any incidental quality".

Research into friendship and masculinity has found that recent generations of men, raised by feminist mothers in the 1970s, are more emotionally open and more expressive.

Men are also entering into a first marriage at later ages than they have previously. According to a 2007 study conducted by the Rutgers University National Marriage Project, men are waiting to marry until an average age of 27, up from an average age of 23 in 1960, and men with more education are waiting until their 30s before getting married. The financial pressure of staying single longer may lead to men becoming roommates for extended periods, fueling the bromance.

It got me thinking about the famous bromantic couples that spring to my mind:

Sitcoms –
The most famous one I can think of are Joey and Chandler from “Friends”. It actually is very lovely to see such a strong between two guys and I don’t think that the series would be the same without them. Another couple is JD and Turk from “Scrubs” who are hilariously funny. I think JD cried hysterically when Turk was marrying Carla. Closer to home would be the lovely Ant and Dec, who started off at Byker Grove and now Saturday night TV is just not the same without them :)

Films –
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have got take the number one spot. Those guys started off their careers together and are still the best of friends despite their celeb status and fame. George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the Ocean movies are also excellent example of friendship.

Not so real –
Probably my earliest encounters of bromantic relationship would be from my favourite cartoon at the time – The Flintstones; Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Also Sesame Street gets a mention, especially Bert and Ernie. It’s probably where I picked up my first taste of sarcasm, lol.

Family wise, a lot more spring to mind. Numerous uncles and cousins both here in the UK and well pretty much all over the world really. Dilemma - should I name them? Ah I’m sure they all know who they are ;) Personally I think it’s really sweet, lol.

P.S. Just a bit of an afterthought; what's the term for a girl-crush? I'm not sure it even exists, lol. Hmmm, any suggestions?