Chapter I Introduction

library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION a. Research Background On April 14, 2015, six stars of The Avengers: Age of Ultron franchise paid a visit at Jimmy Kimmel Live Show. While the casts were on duty promoting their new film, there was one more agenda that drew more attention. It was when Kimmel pulled out the “Science Bros” fan art, an erotic artworks made by fan referring to the characters of Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo in the movie. This “Science Bros” is just one of the examples on how fans have always found a bromance in every movie they have watched. Last year, the casts of the X-Men: Days of Future Past got the same treatment at The Graham Norton Show when Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy were shown some of erotic fan arts of them. The bromance is going stronger than ever. Even in archiveofourown.org, a famous website for fiction works of characters in tv series/films, there are 6893 entries found in bromance category (Archive of Our Own, 2016). The number is also getting higher day by day. The same goes on fanfiction.net with 2498 entries found for the same category (Fanfiction.net, 2016). While instances above are works in fiction, the real life situation is as obsessed with this term as well. It can be seen from the commit to user 1 library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id viral Obama-Biden memes that has caught massive attention from public. This phenomenon leads the media to call this friendship between the president and vice president as a ‘bromance’ too, showing how people’s affection towards this term is undeniable. Long before the Obama-Biden phenomenon, mainstream media have perpetually used such terms for several male-male celebrity close friendships like CNN which made a list of Hollywood’s famous bromances (Hanks, 2013). The word ‘bromance’ itself is one of the new words to be added to the dictionary on August 26, 2011. According to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, the portmanteau of the words ‘brother’ and ‘romance’ means a close nonsexual friendship between men. It is like a male-bonding, only a bit more intimate. This word is actually not fresh syllables that gain popularity in social media era like the other added words. Skateboard magazine editor David Carnie is often credited with having originated the term in the 1990s, but “bromance” did not begin to appear regularly in America media until 2005, around the time of the release of Judd Apatow’s The-40-year-Old-Virgin (DeAngelis, 2014, p. 1). Apatow here is also claimed to be the pioneer of the genre, creating the new formula. As the teen flicks of the late John Hughes gave way to the rom-coms of Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan in the 1980s, so "gross-out" – the pre-eminent comedy subgenre of the 1990s – has bowed to Apatow and his imitators' "bromances": male-centric romantic comedies that frequently favour the bawdy bonds between men over those of heterosexual romance (The commit to user 2 library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id Independent, 2009). Apatow does not only make this term popular but also introduce the audience to the new genre as a bromantic comedy. Apatow may be a prominent figure in popularizing the term, especially in media. However, the popularity of the bromance and its depiction on a film is influence by the socio-cultural background in America itself. There is a changing behavior on society around the time Apatow released his first bromantic feature which is still going on until now. Jennifer Lee (2005) explained two social conditions aroused in the millennial America as: Before women were considered men's equals, some gender historians say, men routinely confided in and sought advice from one another in ways they did not do with women, even their wives. Then, these scholars say, two things changed during the last century: an increased public awareness of homosexuality created a stigma around male intimacy, and at the same time women began encroaching on traditionally male spheres, causing men to become more defensive about notions of masculinity. (Lee, 2005) There is absolutely minority groups rising at this period, where homosexuals are slowly accepted and women start to make their place in society. These two things consequently affect how men see themselves in society. They are aware that the rising of minority groups slowly tackle their power in society which results in their more defensive attitude. Men should really have worried about this situation. Ever since the big recession, everything is only going downhill for them. Ray Williams recorded trends in that particular time as follow: Today, double the number of unmarried women are purchasing homes in America than there are unmarried men. Forty percent family's primary breadwinner are now women, a sharp increase from past decades.commit The New to user Hampshire State Legislature is now 3 library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id made up of a majority of women, a first for a legislative body in the U.S., and the number of women in government continues to edge up nationwide. In the upcoming Congressional elections, an unprecedented number of women are candidates, a field traditionally dominated by men. (Williams, 2010) Women have truly outplayed men in every field, leaving men’s position in society unease. While it sounds progressive in feminist point of view, this is seen as drawback from patriarchal value as men cannot prove themselves as role models. The fact that modern men are left behind in economic, educational, and governmental sectors is simply bad news for them. These things are like resources for them to become the most powerful group in society. Thus, men are no longer the one in charge as their resources are now cut- off. This far from ideal situation positions men into a state of masculinity in crisis where they fail to live up to the ideal standard. This crisis makes their position in society threatened as they are no longer believed to be the one with power. The more men feel threatened about their position in society, the stronger the bromance is. Their main agenda appears to be regaining the hegemonic masculinity. To put it concisely, bromance films are about “men growing up and men helping men grow up and men being just shy of gay as they tease one another about being gay as they help one another grow up” (Morton, 2009 cited on (Sargeant, 2013). There are many things going on within the bromance like the possibility of homoeroticism. However, the notion often remains as a mere flirtation or even worse, commit to user 4 library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id turning out to be a homophobic joke that will only strengthen their main agenda, regaining the hegemonic masculinity. The case of regaining hegemonic masculinity can be found in related research such as the one conducted by Sargeant where she takes on bromantic comedy movies and TV Series such as I Love You, Man, The Room, and How I Met Your Mother. She concerns more on the genre in the recent era. Sargeant here mentions on how the development of the genre in this era is mainly influenced by the events called masculinity in crisis. Besides, she also used such theories as social constructions on masculinity, masculinity in film, cult film and homosocial theory. This research also reveals the new formula of bromance which now focuses on the injection of humor. She argues that comedy here plays a great part in reinforce the purpose of regaining masculinity in a more subtle way: Comedy, then, mediates between representations of non-normative sexuality and anxietiesfelt about threats toward heteronormativity. Humor may ease tensions felt about male/malephysicality when it is not legitimized by other hypermasculine portrayals (as in war, action, orsports movies) and serves to expand what is acceptable behavior. Because the male on malephysical actions are amusing (and, at certain points ironic) in addition to being sincere manifestationsof affection, the directors, actors, and scripts are able to further push the limits of what isstandard acceptable behavior between two men. (ibid., 15) Besides, comedy also suits with the representation of men in this era where they are portrayed more as a beta-male, the opposite of the alpha type. These new male representations depict masculinity as unsure with a severe lack of confidence, especially concerning women, with a desperate need to compensate for what they are lacking in supposed“normal” and commit to user 5 library.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id desirable masculinity (ibid., 10). These are the kind of guys that perpetually appear in Judd Apatow’s movies like Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, and Jason Segel. Moreover, the lack of confidence makes these men here exclude women and thus create a male-centric area. Thus, Sargeant concluded on how bromantic comedy here promotes the hegemonic masculinity which results from those male-centric arena they created. Another research regarding bromance was conducted by David B. Hartwell. Hartwell finds out the exact same formula on this genre, just like Sargeant. Moreover, Hartwell here also emphasizes on how this kind of genre still carefully maintains the heteronormativity. The bromantic comedy, despite an apparent attempt to queer the normative image of homosocial bonding and gender performance, fails to challenge the hegemonic motives of heteronormative domination and fails to critique the central drives of the Hollywood romantic comedy (Hartwell, 2015, p. 5). Both Sargeant and Hartwell mentioned that films like I Love You, Man, Superbad, Knocked-Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Dude, Where’s My Car? have already provided the closeness of two heterosexual men.

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