Help?

[kerravonsen]

Please, someone explain to me what "bromance" means.

Comments

[sahiya]

It means that the show is trying to attract viewers for having slashy subtext (because they've wised up enough to know that works now) without actually having to go out on a limb and have a gay relationship on the show. (In other words, "queer-baiting.")

/bitter

[kerravonsen]

Interesting; the various answers I've been given (see the LJ post) differ in only one regard: whether or not the deep intense friendship is platonic or has homoerotic subtext.

[sahiya]

Well, I think bromances are designed to be ambiguous that way. If you're queer and looking for representation in pop culture, you can read them as queer; if you're not inclined that way, you can read them as gen. My bitterness comes from the fact that this seems to be as far as most pop culture is willing to go these days, because it lets them have their cake and eat it, too (both their queer viewers and their homophobic ones, who wouldn't watch if the relationship was actually queer). But I'm pretty over their fence-sitting and queer-baiting.

[kalypso]

I've never heard it used with homoerotic subtext, and I would normally take it as specifically intended to exclude that (speaking as someone who likes subtext). It's not just a fannish thing; I've heard it used of at least one pair of England cricketers who spend a lot of time together off the field (but are also happily married).

[tptigger]

What kalypso said.
Or at least that's how I used it.
I always took it as the masculine version of "bff"

[kalypso]

There are certainly plenty of those male relationships being written at the moment, but I wouldn't call them bromances. (Actually I probably wouldn't use the word at all, but that's because it irritates me.) Life on Mars, for instance, I'd say was the opposite of bromance; too much antagonism between the couple.