#ladymance

[dumbelle]

Today marks our 4-year Bird-versary. No big deal. #adoptdontshop #bff #mainPIC #ladymance

[simply-semantha]

16 in the middle of Miami!! #ladymance #soulsisters #knowwhatimtalkinbout

[itachidere]

HARUKA/SHUGO HUHUHU~

i don’t know them enough | wtf | why | NOTP | tolerable | they’re okay | platOTP | cute | awww | babies | hot | I will go down with this ship | OTP

they are so lesbian for each other

[petra-ravioli]

I didn't sign this one with my signature because well. . . I kinda hate this edit. BUT- oh well. I like doing these so, here tumblr. Have at it.

[fulltimehabibti]

[andoralsreach]

Is it bad that if I had the chance to ask the DA3 devs anything

anything at all

At present the one thing I'd ask for is for the Inquisitor's surname and her/his country of origin (or countries, if this is affected by background)

Simply because I really want to decide on a name for my first girl and I want it to fit properly /o\

[queenieofaces]

Searching for the elusive ladymance

You probably know what a bromance is--it's when two guys have a friendship that transcends the bounds of friendship and turns into something else, but they're not gay, and maybe sometimes they even talk about ladies while they're broing it up.  If you have watched TV or a movie in the past, oh, I dunno, EVER, you can probably name more than a few bromances off the top of your head.  Maybe, if you are a guy, you have even been part of a bromance.

If you are, in fact, one of those lucky guys in a rad bromance, I must admit that I am somewhat jealous of you.  You have experienced something I never will--solely because I am a lady.

Let's take a moment to think about this: Can you think of ANY female characters in ANY form of media who have the female equivalent of a bromance?  Because I posed this question to a couple of friends and we were left with...nothing.  Maybe we've been watching/reading/listening to the wrong things, though.  Of course, having a rad female!bromance would basically require passing the Bechdel Test with flying colors, which is hard enough as is.

On the other hand, there isn't even a word for the female equivalent of a bromance.  I've been using "ladymance," because A. it sounds kind of awesome and B. "sismance" sounds like some sort of incurable disease ("Yes, I'm afraid Lisa has been diagnosed with an acute case of sismance").

(In related news, there's also no female equivalent for the slang "broing it up," which is pretty sad, because I really like that phrase.  When I'm hanging out with my brother, I usually say we are "broing it up," even though I guess the more correct term would be "siblinging it up."  That sounds awkward, though, doesn't it?)

Why is it that there is a term for bromance but none (that I didn't just totally make up) for ladymance?  Is it that it's more socially acceptable for women to form those sorts of incredibly strong friendships--so much so that it doesn't even need a separate word?  (Related: Was the term "bromance" created because people assume that two men who are very close are gay, but two women who are very close aren't?)  If so, why aren't those sorts of relationships portrayed in books/movies/TV shows/radio shows/ANYTHING?  Heck, a lot of character groups don't even have two ladies on them who COULD ladymance at each other--think of all the three-person character teams with two guys and a girl...and that's a pretty high ratio of ladies.

In those rare cases that two ladies are portrayed as having a strong friendship, it's almost inevitably a friendship that takes the backseat once a "real" relationship hits the screen/page/airwave.  Once Girl A finally finds a boyfriend/husband/lover/whatever else, she and Girl B mostly meet to talk about the men in their lives, it seems.  (Once again, Bechdel Test failing everywhere.)  In contrast, bromances don't necessarily take the backseat to sexual or romantic relationships.  Sometimes the bromanced dudes have lady partners, sometimes they don't, but there is rarely ever a perceived trade-off.  Think about I Love You, Man, which is actually the first movie I ever heard the word "bromance" used to describe; the entire movie is about how you can totally have a bromance AND a wife/girlfriend.

Now, I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally lean toward the yes-it's-totally-okay-to-have-multiple-important-people-in-your-life way of thinking.  I have a romantic partner (in crime!), but I also have friends I love to death who are just as important--just in different ways.  I can't imagine deciding to recenter my entire world around my partner and throwing my friends to the wayside, because A. I would be the world's suckiest friend and B. my life would be about fifty times more boring and less filled with Johnlock.  And when I meet with my friends (both ladies and guys), we don't spend the entire time talking about our romantic/sexual partners--we also talk about DINOSAURS and knot theory and weird music and whether lady werewolves can have babies and Sherlock and what the weirdest thing is that we can bake into cookies without killing ourselves.

I know that society (sadly) values romantic and sexual relationships over platonic ones, except, somehow, the bromance gets an exception sometimes.  So is it too much to ask to widen that exception and let some ladies get in on it?

...wow, that got huge and rambly.

In summary, ladymances!  We need more of them.  If you know of any in books/movies/TV shows/what have you, send me your suggestions!  If you want to point out my logical fallacies, you can do that too!  If you think I'm an idiot and should shut up, um, sorry.