Womance

A womance is a close but non-sexual relationship between two (or more) women,[1][2][3][4][5][6] a form of affectional or homosocial intimacy.

The word womance is a portmanteau of the words woman and romance.[7] The emergence of the terms bromance and womance has been seen as reflecting increased relationship-seeking as a modern behavior.[6] Although womance is sometimes seen as the female flip side of bromance,[8][9] some have seen different nuances in the social construction of the two concepts.[1][2][10] Hammarén sees "different values assigned to male and female friendships" and a dissimilarity in the "underlying power relation between the concepts",[2] and Winch has asserted several differences in the social construction.[1]

Film

Examples of film womances seem to be less prevalent than bromances.[2] In Her Shoes (2005), Baby Mama (2008), The Women (2008), Bride Wars (2009), and Bridesmaids (2011) have been seen as womances, and their characteristics and tropes discussed.[1] Winch expands on the assertion that "The womance can be distinguished from earlier friendship films because of its focus on the female self as entrepreneurial self-project."[1] She sees differences from bromance, in "practices of consumption and hypervisability differentiates their togetherness from the togetherness of the buddies of the bromance" as well as dissimilar themes - girlfriend competition, female solidary in the face of concerns about economic security and bridezilla behavior.

The Australian feature film Jucy (2010) is billed as a "womantic comedy".[11][12] Frances Ha (2013) has been seen as a character study, with two close female protagonists, who "have quite a womance going".[13]

Television

Several current TV series feature notable "womances"[14] as well as the TV series Laverne and Shirley[15] and Mel & Sue.[16] The first all-female podcast is a comedy duo from Brisbane.[17]

Celebrity

It has also been used to describe the real life friendship between celebrities.[18][8][19]

See also

Look up womance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Winch A. Girlfriends and Postfeminist Sisterhood. Palgrave Macmillan. 2013. ISBN 9780230348752
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hammarén N, Johansson T. Homosociality in Between Power and Intimacy. SAGE Open, 2014. 4(1)
  3. ↑ Elizabeth Ann Thompson, "Womance vs. Bromance", The Huffington Post 11 July 2014 accessed 12 February 2015
  4. ↑ June 02, 2013, Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, Review: Little charm in these 'Mistresses': Despite a promising premise — mature women making the mistakes of youth — this ABC remake of a BBC soap is lame and ridiculous., Retrieved , "...violate the basic principle of womance TV: Drop everything the moment a friend calls. ..."
  5. ↑ September 19, 2011, Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, Television review: '2 Broke Girls': '2 Broke Girls' is a meat-and-potatoes kind of sitcom in which a once-rich girl goes to work with and befriends a working girl at a diner., Retrieved , "...heart of the show is the womance — the inevitable friendship between the two women ..."
  6. 1 2 Townsend J. How To Be A Best Friend Forever: Making and Keeping Lifetime Relationships. Worthy Publishing. 2012. ISBN 9781617950292
  7. ↑ Meanley E. I’m Having a Womance and I’m Loving It. FEBRUARY 4, 2010
  8. 1 2 Emma Koehn, "Less bromance, more womance", Overland 22 January 2014 accessed 12 February 2015
  9. ↑ Susan Wloszczyna, May 12, 2011, USA Today, 'Bridesmaids': Here comes the raunch, Retrieved , "...."We were looking for an alternative to bromance," he says. "A 'womance.' .."
  10. ↑ Strait, A. Beyond BFFs - cozying up to queerplatonic relationships. Post Volume 14 issue 8.
  11. ↑ 'One Jucy on Screen Womance for the Gold Coast', by Caroline Russo, Tamborine Daily Star, November 9, 2010
  12. ↑ Genevieve Tait, "A Little Womance", Filmink Magazine 14 January 2009 accessed 12 February 2015
  13. ↑ Deborah Ross. The Spectator, 27 July 2013.
  14. ↑ 'Top 10 Womances On TV Today' by Lauren Barbato, The Morning After on Hulu, September 28, 2011
  15. ↑ 'Womance What a Wonderful Word' by Christine Jacobs at Leading Women, posted August 2, 2011
  16. ↑ Ginny Dougary. Mel & Sue on "womance" and their new chat show Monday 12 January 2015
  17. ↑ Bochenski N. A womance laid bare in an all-chick podcast. Brisbane Times. March 4, 2013.
  18. ↑ "Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden enjoy a WOMANCE", The Sun accessed 12 February 2015
  19. ↑ Aggarwal U. Womance in the virtual world: Cool or creepy? Times of India May 31, 2014
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, September 11, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.