Womance

A womance is a close but non-sexual, non-romantic relationship between two or more women.[1][2][3][4][5][6] It is an exceptionally tight affectional, homosocial female bonding relationship exceeding that of usual friendship, and is distinguished by a particularly high level of emotional intimacy.

"Girl crush" redirects here. For the Little Big Town song, see Girl Crush.

Relationships
(Outline)
Types
Genetic or adoptive
By marriage
Partner(s)
Intimate and sexual
Activities
Endings
Emotions and feelings
Practices
Abuse

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]

Cultural references

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), The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (2005), Desatanakkili Karayarilla, an Indian Malayalam language movie (1986), 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 solidarity 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 2010's TV series feature notable "womances"[14] as well as the earlier TV series Laverne and Shirley[15] and Mel & Sue.[16]

Other

The first all-female podcast is a comedy duo from Brisbane.[17]

"Womance" has also been used to describe the real life friendship between female celebrities.[8][18]

See also
Look up womance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References
  1. Winch A. Girlfriends and Postfeminist Sisterhood. Palgrave Macmillan. 2013. ISBN 9780230348752
  2. 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. 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. 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. Ashton Strait, "Beyond bffs: cozying up to queerplatonic relationships", Post- (Brown University), Volume 14, Issue 8, 15 November 2012
  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. Aggarwal U. Womance in the virtual world: Cool or creepy? Times of India May 31, 2014
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