Few things are more fascinating to me than trends in popular culture. The latest trend to bubble up- “bromances”. Honestly I think the beginning of the trend (in recent times) was Brokeback Mountain, even though the most recent incarnations (MTV’s Bromance, TNT’s Trust Me, Dreamworks’ I Love You, Man) are all about two straight guys who, uh, happen to enjoy one another’s company.
My first glimmer that this whole thing had legs was the relationship between (gay) Ronnie and (ostensibly straight) Ben on Bravo’s Make Me a Supermodel. Something about their friendship/sexual tension clearly appealed to the young female demo that supported the show- they both stuck around until the very end despite otherwise inferior talent. So to me it’s a misreading to that this is a genre that men want to see, but rather about what women find sexy and appealing. It ties back to the NYT Magazine article on What Do Women Want. At least according to plethysmograph studies (a plastic probe that sits inside the vagina and measures genital blood flow), women find two men together (subliminally) hot.
MediaWeek has this round-up:
