“Bromance” is a highly favored term commonly used in K-Pop to describe the often affectionate, extremely close relationship between two heterosexual males -in this case- the male K-Idols.
Here is a popular NigaHiga YouTube video featuring Jay Park with a humorous and light-hearted take on explaining the term “Bromance”.
There is no denying its popularity particularly in the world of K-Pop – with legions of fans exclaiming to the world their “couple bias” or the boy-couple they “ship” and being absolutely protective of the idols they love to see interacting affectionately with each other.
These “bromance-ing” K-Idols can include members from the same K-Pop group, same entertainment company, or extend across the entire K-Pop or K-Entertainment industry.
Here are just some examples from the countless number of bromances in K-Pop.
These Bromances are also considered a part of fan service and are so well received that instances of such close interactions are often deliberately emphasized in photoshoots and social media.
Yet sometimes one cannot help but wonder if social media in instances like this is rather contradictory. To what extent can you ensure the audience will only interpret the images one way – and not imagine if “bromance” is what the word intrinsically means and is not a euphemism?
Indeed, this could be credited to part of Korean culture where it is not surprising to find boys on the street acting especially affectionate towards each other.
And surely, observing our idols behavior and interaction with one another, especially amongst two very close friends, fans get to see a more personal side to them. Bromance relationships also very often allow one to understand a tad bit more about their private and distant lives – their personalities, and how they act around a best friend.
Hence understandably, this also gives rise to a boom in “fanfics” (short for Fan fiction, stories written by fandoms) written about their “couple bias”. Interestingly, we are then presented with their stories with issues verging on outright gay, homosexual or bisexual topics.
Not only towards homophobes alone, these provocative topics remain an ignored taboo in the mindset of many K-Pop supporters whose mindsets only accommodate the pristine image of K-Pop and what their Idols should be, or should not be.
Yet these fanfics are perhaps not the furthest from the truth.
The word “romance” in “B-romance” normally suggests a love affair, the flush of being in love and could even refer to a sexual relationship. But ironically, this is exactly what “Bromance” in K-Pop does not serve to be. The innocent and non-sexual nuances to the term reigns and remains to be what K-Pop fans largely want to hear or know of.
However, as much as one would like to believe in the hopes and possibilities that idols remain heterosexual bachelors - there is still no doubting the likelihood of homosexuality in K-Pop as with anywhere else.
Through the rather homophobic nature of the society that K-Pop has risen from – we will definitely not be seeing any outright confessions.
But as long as there is the existence of this facade behind certain “Bromance” in K-Pop culture, or whether this entire idea is a preconceived notion or not – it is certainly a win-win situation for both fans and idols alike, albeit even temporarily.
