Comments on: Feature: Bromance of “new” straight men like Scrub’s JD and Turk

By: Derp

Derp — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:39:36 +0000

Steak Night isn’t once a week, it’s once a year.

(god, I watch this show too often.)

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:38:37 +0000

I think a “Bromance” is VERY distinct to any sort of gay relationship. Maybe people just want to put the gay overtones on them? I have very emotionally intense friendships with men and women. I’m gay, and I wonder if people would describe the intense emotional relationships I have with female friends as “hetero-erotic”, as if they were some sort of expression of a repressed heterosexuality? I doubt it. Why is it so hard for some people to accept (both gay and straight people) that to humans can share close friendship without any sexual undercurrent regardless of the genders or sexualities of said humans? Bromances do exist, I just struggle to see why they need such a label?

By: Rose

Rose — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:01:38 +0000

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about this subject. And it seems to me, it happens a lot in TV and films. I remember way back in the 70s, when every girl I knew was into Starskey and Hutch, it always looked to me like the two of them were a lot closer than just ‘partners’ in the cop sense. The same is true in the 1980s of the central characters of the ‘Lethal Weapon’ films. And I could probably cite a few more examples. At a stretch, Ant and Dec’s characters in Byker Grove. What it amounts to is cowardice on the part of the writers, producers of these shows. What would have happened if Starskey and Hutch actually declared themselves to be an item, stopped chasing girls and set up home together? Would the girls I knew go off them? Would we have had to have it explained to us in Sex Ed class? Would it, just possibly, have advanced the idea that two men loving each other is just as normal as a man and a woman? Instead, it always fell short with a coy kind of what I would now call homo-eroticism, but which I didn’t have a word for when I was 14. What if Lethal Weapon had been about an old black cop and a young white one who actually did sleep together? What a different film it would have been! And if Ant and Dec’s characters had broken the last taboo of children’s drama, would the world have imploded? Yes, probably! They rose up in the days of Section 28, of course. But TV has been littered with these ‘bromances’ for decades, and nobody has ever had the courage to go all the way with them.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:07:25 +0000

Scrubs does pretty well in gay humour without resorting to the boring gay-panic jokes.

By: Mihangel apYrs

Mihangel apYrs — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:17:47 +0000

the “song” was actually sung.

In a way “Scrubs” is quite affirming, it’s just so twee….

By: Riondo

Riondo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:44:51 +0000

Is the lyric/dialogue above posted by Schbank actually from the show? Note the combination of homoerotic sentiment with denial of gay experience plus clear suggestion that if it were gay it couldn’t be ‘manly’. Pass me the sick-bag and get a life, boys.

By: Andrew Q

Andrew Q — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:07:48 +0000

Why on earth is this on a gay website.

By: flapjack

flapjack — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:28:21 +0000

I should add that unrequited attraction obviously already falls under the banner of “Gay crush”, making “Bromance” a redundant term.

By: flapjack

flapjack — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:24:33 +0000

I guess the question is where does a simple close friendship become a bromance? I think it’s a new buzzword for a type of friendship that’s already been out there a while.
As far as I’m concerned if it’s stopped being about just friendship or companionship and become that intimate it pretty much fits under the category of a gay platonic relationship.
Is there really any need for a hairsplitting term like “Bromance”? It smacks of closet cases trying to hide their true feelings.
You either fancy your mate or you don’t. If you do it’s most likely a gay/ bisexual relationship by any other name, if you don’t you’re just good friends and you shouldn’t have to justify it either way.
It’s like the old notion of eskimos having 100 words for snow.

By: Vincent Poffley

Vincent Poffley — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:56:04 +0000

Actually, on further reflection, I have come to the opinion that while the article here has no relevance to LGBT issues, the subject that it attempts to discuss (the nature of love and friendship between members of the same gender) does. I can envision a very interesting and informative article about that subject, one which raises pertinent questions and addresses important issues. This is not it alas – what we have here is a confused mess that seems to do nothing more than discuss the relationships between two fictional characters in their own fictional world. It’s the sort of thing that might be welcome on a Scrubs fan site, but of little value anywhere else.

As I see it, the important questions are the wider cultural and psychological ones. What is the nature of love and friendship? Are they two grades of the same thing, or are there qualitative as well as quantitative differences? Are there implicit homophobic attitudes in general culture, specifically straight male culture, which inhibit the expression of love and friendship between men because they fear they might be, or seem, gay? Does this explain why women are, in general, more willing to experiment with same-sex relations than men in our culture? What can be done to ease such repressive attitudes? How do these attitudes differ across different cultures? Where does this leave gay men – are all our close male friendships in danger of turning into unrequited love, especially where we also find our friends sexually attractive?

Perhaps it is too much to ask that we get articles like that once in a while?

By: Simon Murphy

Simon Murphy — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:53:15 +0000

Seriously – what the hell relevance does friendship between 2 straight guys have to do with LGBT people.

Yes friendship is nice and I’m happy for straight guys if they can have close friends. BUt it’s not news, and it’s entirely irrelevant to this site.

By: Rose

Rose — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:36:24 +0000

Ah, I think there’s a clue in the surname of this writer. While Pink News comment is turning into a mire thanks to the unrestrained nonsense of Rahman, Ben is letting his family write columns.

By: RobN

RobN — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:49:40 +0000

What exactly was the point of this verbal diaorreah?
You’ve managed to spout an entire column and say absolutely f_ck all.

I hope this rag pays well.

By: Rose

Rose — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:47:48 +0000

None of you ever went to a single sex boarding school? This sort of relationship is what kept us all sane!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:14:16 +0000

I wrote a blog entry about Man Crushes a while back…

http://thestateofthenationuk.blogspot.com/2009/02/only-little-bit-gay.html

By: niki

niki — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:07:59 +0000

Comment 2- I wonder!
So a Gay and a Straigth man cannot have a bromance? Men have had best friends since time began…

By: Maria

Maria — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:26:49 +0000

If this had a vote button, I’d be pressing ‘down’. Sorry. Equally, if it had a ‘give a critique which might help the author’ I’d be filling in lots of stuff.

By: Vincent Poffley

Vincent Poffley — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:25:20 +0000

And this is on a gay news website why exactly?

By: George

George — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:33:15 +0000

Whatever happened to just being close pals.

By: schbank

schbank — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:08:39 +0000

[J.D.]
Let’s face the facts about me and you,
A love unspecified.
Though I’m proud to call you “Chocolate Bear,”
The crowd will always talk and stare.

[Turk]
I feel exactly those feelings, too
And that’s why I keep them inside.
‘Cause this bear can’t bear the world’s disdain,
And sometimes it’s easier to hide,
Than explain our

[J.D. and Turk]
Guy love,
That’s all it is,
Guy love,
He’s mine, I’m his,
There’s nothing gay about it in our eyes.

[Turk]
You ask me ’bout this thing we share,

[J.D.]
And he tenderly replies,

[Turk]
It’s guy love

[J.D. and Turk]
Between two guys.

[Turk]
We’re closer than the average man and wife,

[J.D.]
That’s why our matching bracelets say Turk and J.D.

[Turk]
You know I’ll stick by for the rest of my life.

[J.D.]
You’re the only man who’s ever been inside of me.

[Turk]
Whoa, I just took out his apendix.

[J.D.]
There’s no need to clarify,

[Turk]
Oh no?

[J.D.]
Just let it grow more and more each day.
It’s like I married my best friend,

[Turk]
But in a totally manly way.

[J.D. and Turk]
Let’s go!
It’s guy love,
Don’t compromise,
The feeeling of some other guy,
Holding up your heart,
Into the sky.

[J.D.]
I’ll be there to care through all the lows.

[Turk]
I’ll be there to share the highs.

[J.D. and Turk]
It’s guy love,
Between two guys.

[J.D.]
And when I say, “I love you, Turk,”
It’s not what it impies.

[J.D. and Turk]
It’s guy love
Between
Two
Guys