Dudes should be able to kiss their dude friends because they are their friend; not just because they want to jump their bones.
So a thought occurred to me that probably shouldn’t have -just- occurred to me. My best friend and I occasionally kiss when we’ve drunk a bit. We don’t fancy each other. We’d probably never sleep with each other. We’re just best friends. Even when we’ve not been drinking, we might be a bit touchy, flirty or couple-y. Calling each other nicknames that you might call a partner or lover.
Which is why I don’t know why it just occurred to me that guys could/should be exactly the same. Particularly with boy bands. They spend a lot of time together. If they get on, they’re probably going to become super close. And it’s only the socially constructed male stereotypical behavioural values that make us think that any kind of affection that they show to each other that doesn’t fit that criteria must mean that they’re gay or have romantic feelings for each other.
I spent A LOT of time reading fanfics, and watching tiny clips of interactions that implied a something-more-than-friends vibe without realising that their behaviour isn’t much different to my own with my friend/s.
This got me thinking: why do we make the leap that these interactions mean that these males must be romantically involved to show that kind of affection? which lead to socially constructed male norms. And then: if we were to ditch these values and they were able to act freely, we might one day have a world where members of musical groups can show their affection to one another in public without worrying about a backlash of bad media because they must be gay. (If it -must- be published int he media) It could just become a display of friendship between two people.
That in return could lead to a world where men in general feel comfortable expressing their feelings for their friends without having to worry if it’s socially acceptable or anyone on the receiving end lashing out because ‘no homo’.
... So yeah, I saw a picture of Yunho and Jaejoong sitting next to each other, each with a hand on Yunho’s leg with an added heart between them, and thought, ‘I do the same with my friend...’