When we think of friendship, what is it that we think of? Do we just say it is a relationship between two people who care about each other? According to the Dictionary, friendship is the state of being a friend, or a friendly relation or intimacy. However, I can say it is about having trust, loyalty, affection, loyalty, love, and respect for another person. Some people today could mention the meaning of a genuine friendship would be a person to have a true bond with such as a support system, trusted, help out if needed, or someone to share personal conversations with and know it would not leave their mouth. Friendship has no defined terminology; but it has different meanings between people of other cultures. In addition, if we went back to …show more content…
First, we can see that sexual identity is sexually constructed meaning it was their culture for these males to believe this was acceptable. Young boys grew up in their society as accepting these friendships were accepted whereas these bonds helped a boy into his manhood of marriage, a career, a home of his own, established a true man. For example, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg mentions, how these romantic friendships were “socially acceptable”, and how these relations were considered “fully compatible” with heterosexual bonds. It is crazy to see that these romantic friendships between men may have received stronger cultural support than the bonds between females. Second, these men could have been able to act in such affectionate ways freely because they did not have to worry about facing any consequences, or possibly getting incarcerated for people thinking that there were sexual activity going on between them. The reason for that was because there were no such words for these types of acts happening. The past readings in class the word homosexuality did not exist; however, it was known as “the crime that cannot be named.” Thinking of another reason to think about why these friendships were more accepted was because it was their culture, values, and the norm. These bonds in the 19th century served as a rehearsal for marriage since divorce was not an option, and it …show more content…
However, I do believe that not all of these friendships were sexual, but definitely more of an emotional support and bond where they were able to share there intimate thoughts, deep secrets, and career dreams. For example, in the Youth and Male Intimacy, Daniel Webster goes on and say how much his best friend meant to him, by often referring that he was the partner of joys, grief’s, and infections, in which he was the only person that Daniel can confide in. According to Rotundo, “young men expressed their fondness for each other in affectionate physical gestures. These friendships inverted familiar patters of male behavior—they were intimate attachments that verged on romance”