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Making sense of a bromance: Talking with straight men about I Love You, Man
- Source: Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, Volume 1, Issue 3, Sep 2016, p. 315 - 336
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- 01 Sep 2016
Abstract
Abstract
This article explores the relationship between mediated bromance narratives and shifting constructions of heterosexual masculinity through a qualitative, cultural studies audience analysis of I Love You, Man (Hamburg, 2009). We conducted one-on-one interviews with 38 straight-identified male college students in which respondents were asked to discuss their reactions to the film, their friendships with men (including gay men) and their use of the bromance discourse. The film’s depiction of male bonding and the bromance discourse itself, we argue, spoke most productively to the men seeking to reconcile their investment in traditional norms of manhood with emerging incentives to renounce such norms as regressive.
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