Bromance: Male Friendship, Love and Sport

This book provides the first detailed account of the bromance among heterosexual men. Using one year of ethnography with one sport team, we show that the bromance exists as an elevated form of friendship that is significantly more emotional, and in which young, straight men engage in a great deal of physical tactility and emotional disclosure.

We explain the emergence of the bromance as a consequence of a decreasing cultural fear of men had of being seen as gay. We show that many young men today live in a culture of acceptance towards homosexuality, which permits men to partake in bromantic relationships without cultural reprisal.

We find that the bromance permits men to talk about emotions, including fear and anxiety, the sharing of secrets, and other forms of emotional labor. Whilst speaking of deep emotional intimacy, men have also shown that bromances afford them a great deal of physical touch, including non-sexual kisses, cuddling, and comfort in mutual nudity. This comfort can even extend in some circumstances to threesomes or making-out with other men as a form of banter.

Socially, the bromance accommodates an increasingly late entry for young men into the marriage market and child-rearing, too. Our research even shows that half of men find their bromantic relationship as rewarding, or more rewarding, than their heterosexual romances.