bromance

i had a very interesting conversation with a friend this morning. we were sharing with each other about the things we did while we were young(er) with our closest friends. i thought i should write something about it.

i am sure many of us (nope, all of us) do many many things sexual and/ or otherwise with our closest friends when we were younger for the fun of it or part of our sexual discovery process. we keep these things close to our hearts and as secrets between us and our friends. these things may include (secret) skinny dipping in public pools at night, sexual explorations, watching porns, sharing of sex-related stories relating to our own discovery process, mutual masturbation, or simply buying stuff for each other, showing concern for one another... for the last few, these are things that you wouldn't expect a guy to do to another guy if they are straight. haha...

and these are things that will lead to a lot of confusion, soul-search, and so on and can be so misleading especially if one of the guy is gay. why is he so nice to me? is he interested in me? is he also one? should i come out to him? etc etc etc... sounds familiar right? hahaha... also, think about the other permutations, what if one of them is bi, or both are anything but straight but do not know about each other... etc can be very stressful right? also, what would people say when they see two guys so lovey dovey? am sure there will be tons of gossips about them and questions about their sexuality. but well, these things  do happen, especially during our growing up years. the years where friends of the same gender tend to come together more than with the opposite gender. and while some people grow out of it, some people carry on. 

well, today, i think we can refer to such behaviour between 2 persons as bromance. it is a term that fuses between brother and romance. a kinda closeness that one usually associate with brotherly love and yet the relationship between the two parties are not that of brothers. i believe the term bromance is a term coined in recent years to denote a more homo-social attitude between 2 guys. the non-acceptance or decrease in homosocial behavior in societies started since 2 millenia ago with the spread of a more conservative religion and its influence on societal norms. however, in recent year, given the rise of a male image that is more in tuned with his feminine, softer self, and that he is more capable of showing this side of him, there is a need to therefore create words to fill this gap in the english lexicon. 

but well, all these sense-making aside, this is what makes life so interesting right? 

:-)