Bro it up, fellas
The buddy system can significantly boost health
When a bro loves a bro, it’s a beautiful thing.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are No. 1 in the Bromance Hall of Fame — cue the tears and toast the years. Not only are bromances good for the good times, but the buddy system can significantly boost health.
Strong male friendships can be as effective as romantic relationships in reducing stress, reports Stanford University research.
So hug the guy you’re with — and while you’re at it, bro down and tell him you love him, too.
Unfortunately, while womances are celebrated, bromances get nowhere the same respect — until now. Long-term male friendships have been stigmatized as somehow un-masculine, but times are changing and so too conceptions of masculinity in contemporary culture. For many men, their friends are like brothers — always there through thick and thin. They’d take a bullet for them.
A new social experiment sheds light on masculinity and love in 2017, and challenges gender stereotypes — the Naked Bromance Experiment polled 1,000 men who offered up their naked truth about their personal male relationships.
Men were asked, “Would you say ‘I love you’ to another man?” and the video shows a wide spectrum of awkward and authentic responses: “No, maybe if we were drunk,” or “Nay, we never say I love you, even though I know we care about each other,” while other guys embraced each other and sincerely said, “I love you.”
Behind the beers and laughs and kidding, professing love between two best guy friends is becoming more commonplace, says JP Richards, the interviewer in the Naked Bromance Experiment video done in partnership with Men’s Health Network.
“Younger Canadian men, 18 to 21 years old, are way more likely and easily say, ‘I love you’ than older men.”
Acceptance is blossoming and the old mould of men not expressing their affection is on its way out.
Inspired by all the bromance on camera, Richards actually called up his best male buddies to profess his love: “One friend and I exchanged beautiful ‘I love yous’ — then I confessed I was on-camera and asked if I could share it with the world and he said ‘F#%* No!’”
From the three messages he left, Richards was feeling the love from all the feedback: “They shared with me ‘you’re one of the most important people in my life’ and ‘thank you, so nice to hear ‘I love you’ from someone other than my girlfriend. I love you too.’ ”
Meanwhile, Patrick Alexander Loubert, 32, admits to lots of bromances and views them as a deep stage of friendship with other men. It’s fraternal love. “The guys I see the most in my life, I tend to form affectionate bonds with and they become my bros.”
The filmmaker and actor tells his friends he loves them on a regular basis because hiding how you feel serves no purpose. “Friends are important, and loving your friends is how you stay friends.”
Loubert adds that he has no fears of telling another man he loves them because “I’m comfortable in my sexuality and I know they are comfortable in theirs. I even tell my gay buddies I love ‘em, and they don’t immediately take this as a sign I wish to have sex with them — haha.
“I guess my only fear would be loving somebody who pretends to be my brother but actually says awful things behind my back,” adds Loubert.
Jason Bald, 45, admits he’s not a huge fan of the term bromance: “I consider a few men in my life like brothers, including one actual sibling. I love them and, while I don’t feel I say it freely, I will say I love them.
“I do have fear though. I fear the reaction from others because I judge that sentiment is not commonly accepted by a society not used to seeing signs of affection between men,” adds Bald, a VP of finance. Richards says to just bro down! “Say ‘I love you’ to your male friends because no one is going to get hurt or die, and you could just infuse your life and relationship with a new incredible loving depth you never knew existed,” adds Richards, co-founder of Naked Cases for the iPhone 7.