A womance is a close but non-

sexual Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female. Sex or SEX may also refer to: Biology and behaviour *Animal sexual behaviour **Copulation (zoology) **Human sexual activity **Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse ** ...

, non-romantic relationship between two or more

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

. It is an exceptionally tight affectional,

homosocial In sociology, homosociality means same-sex relationships that are not of a romantic or sexual nature, such as friendship, mentorship, or others. Researchers who use the concept mainly do so to explain how men uphold men's dominance in society. ...

female bonding In ethology and social science, female bonding is the formation of a close personal relationship and patterns of friendship, attachment, and cooperation in females. Examples Within the context of human relationships the definition and display of f ...

relationship exceeding that of usual friendship, and is distinguished by a particularly high level of emotional intimacy. The word ''womance'' is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words The emergence of the terms bromance and womance has been seen as reflecting increased relationship-seeking as a modern behavior. Although womance is sometimes seen as the female flip side of '' bromance'', some have seen different nuances in the

social construction Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theory ...

of the two concepts. Hammarén sees "different values assigned to male and female friendships" and a dissimilarity in the "underlying power relation between the concepts", and Winch has asserted several differences in the social construction.

Cultural references

Film

Examples of film womances seem to be less prevalent than bromances. '' In Her Shoes'' (2005), ''

Baby Mama A baby mama (also baby mother, or hyphenated baby-mama) is a slang term for a mother who is not marriage, married to her child's father, although the term often carries other connotations as well. This term is associated with African Americans ...

'' (2008), '' The Women'' (2008), ''

Bride Wars ''Bride Wars'' is a 2009 American romantic comedy film directed by Gary Winick and written by Greg DePaul, June Diane Raphael, and Casey Wilson. The film stars Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway with Kristen Johnston, Bryan Greenberg and Candice Berg ...

'' (2009), ''

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' is a series of five bestselling young adult novels by Ann Brashares: ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001),'' ''The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (2003),'' '' Girls in Pants'' (2005), '' Foreve ...

'' (2005), ''

Desatanakkili Karayarilla ''Deshadanakkili Karayarilla'' () is a 1986 Indian Malayalam-language drama film written and directed by Padmarajan. It stars Mohanlal, Karthika, Shari and Urvashi. The film tells the story of two school girls who eloped while on a school tri ...

'', an Indian malayalam language movie (1986), and ''

Bridesmaids Bridesmaids are members of the bride's party in a Western traditional wedding ceremony. A bridesmaid is typically a young woman and often a close friend or relative. She attends to the bride on the day of a wedding or marriage ceremony. Traditi ...

'' (2011) have been seen as womances, and their characteristics and

trope Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...

s discussed. Winch expands on the assertion that "The womance can be distinguished from earlier friendship films because of its focus on the female self as entrepreneurial self-project." She sees differences from bromance, in "practices of consumption and hypervisability differentiates their togetherness from the togetherness of the buddies of the bromance" as well as dissimilar themes—girlfriend competition, female solidarity in the face of concerns about economic security and

bridezilla A bridezilla is a bride whose behavior is seen as demanding or unreasonable. The word comes from bride + -zilla. * ''Bridezillas ''Bridezillas'' is an American reality television series that airs on WE tv and debuted on June 1, 2004. It chronicle ...

behavior. The Australian feature film '' Jucy'' (2010) is billed as a "womantic comedy". ''

Frances Ha ''Frances Ha'' is a 2012 American black and white comedy-drama film, directed by Noah Baumbach and written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Gerwig also plays the title role, a struggling 27-year-old dancer. The film premiered at the Telluride Film F ...

'' (2013) has been seen as a character study, with two close female protagonists, who "have quite a womance going".

Television

Several 2010's TV series feature notable "womances" as well as the TV series ''

Laverne and Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' sta ...

'' and ''Mel & Sue''.Ginny Dougary. Mel & Sue on "womance" and their new chat show Monday 12 January 201

/ref> The first all-female podcast is a comedy duo from Brisbane.

Other

It has also been used to describe the real life friendship between celebrities.

References

{{Reflist, refs= Aggarwal U. Womance in the virtual world: Cool or creepy? Times of India May 31, 2014 'Top 10 Womances On TV Today' by Lauren Barbato, ''The Morning After on Hulu'', September 28, 2011
/ref>{{better source, date=February 2015 Bochenski N. A womance laid bare in an all-chick podcast. Brisbane Times. March 4, 2013

/ref> Hammarén N, Johansson T. Homosociality in ''Between Power and Intimacy''. SAGE Open, 2014. 4(1

/ref> 'Womance What a Wonderful Word' by Christine Jacobs at ''Leading Women'', posted August 2, 2011
/ref> Emma Koehn, "Less bromance, more womance", ''Overland'' 22 January 2014
accessed 12 February 2015 June 02, 2013, Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
Review: Little charm in these 'Mistresses': Despite a promising premise — mature women making the mistakes of youth — this ABC remake of a BBC soap is lame and ridiculous.
Retrieved, "...violate the basic principle of womance TV: Drop everything the moment a friend calls. ..." September 19, 2011, Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
Television review: '2 Broke Girls': '2 Broke Girls' is a meat-and-potatoes kind of sitcom in which a once-rich girl goes to work with and befriends a working girl at a diner.
Retrieved, "...heart of the show is the womance – the inevitable friendship between the two women ..." Meanley E. I’m Having a Womance and I’m Loving It. FEBRUARY 4, 2010
/ref> Deborah Ross. The Spectator, 27 July 2013. 'One Jucy on Screen Womance for the Gold Coast', by Caroline Russo, ''Tamborine Daily Star'', November 9, 2010
/ref> Ashton Strait, " /www.scribd.com/doc/113321494/November-15th-Post Beyond bffs: cozying up to queerplatonic relationships, ''Post-'' (Brown University), Volume 14, Issue 8, 15 November 2012 Genevieve Tait, "A Little Womance", ''Filmink Magazine'' 14 January 2009
accessed 12 February 2015
accessed 12 February 2015 Townsend J. How To Be A Best Friend Forever: Making and Keeping Lifetime Relationships. Worthy Publishing. 2012. {{ISBN, 9781617950292 Susan Wloszczyna, May 12, 2011, USA Today

Retrieved, "...."We were looking for an alternative to bromance," he says. "A 'womance.' .." Winch A. Girlfriends and Postfeminist Sisterhood. Palgrave Macmillan. 2013. {{ISBN, 9780230348752 2010s slang Friendship Homosociality Women in society 2010s neologisms

Cultural references

Film

Television

Other

See also

References