Womance

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Close but non-sexual relationship between two or more women

title: "Womance" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["2010s-slang", "friendship", "homosociality", "women-in-society", "2010s-neologisms"] description: "Close but non-sexual relationship between two or more women" topic_path: "general/2010s-slang" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womance" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Close but non-sexual relationship between two or more women ::

A womance is a close but non-sexual, non-romantic relationship between two or more women. It is an exceptionally tight affectional, homosocial female bonding relationship exceeding that of usual friendship, and is distinguished by a particularly high level of emotional intimacy.

The word womance is a portmanteau of the words woman and romance. 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 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 (2008), The Women (2008), Bride Wars (2009), The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (2005), Desatanakkili Karayarilla, an Indian Malayalam language movie (1986), and Bridesmaids (2011) have been seen as womances, and their characteristics and tropes 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 behavior.

The Australian feature film Jucy (2010) is billed as a "womantic comedy". Frances Ha (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 earlier TV series Laverne and Shirley and Mel & Sue.

Other

"Womance" has also been used to describe the real life friendship between female celebrities.

References

References

  1. Ginny Dougary. Mel & Sue on "womance" and their new chat show Monday 12 January 2015 [http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-01-12/mel--sue-on-womance-and-their-new-chat-show]
  2. Aggarwal U. Womance in the virtual world: Cool or creepy? Times of India May 31, 2014
  3. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120407125923/http://www.tmaonhulu.com/blog/year-of-the-womances/ 'Top 10 Womances On TV Today' by Lauren Barbato, ''The Morning After on Hulu'', September 28, 2011]
  4. Bochenski N. A womance laid bare in an all-chick podcast. Brisbane Times. March 4, 2013. [http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/comedy/a-womance-laid-bare-in-an-allchick-podcast-20130303-2feph.html]
  5. Hammarén N, Johansson T. Homosociality in ''Between Power and Intimacy''. SAGE Open, 2014. 4(1) [http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/4/1/2158244013518057.full-text.pdf+html]
  6. [http://www.leading-women.com/2011/08/womance-what-a-wonderful-word/ 'Womance What a Wonderful Word' by Christine Jacobs at ''Leading Women'', posted August 2, 2011]
  7. [https://overland.org.au/2014/01/less-bromance-more-womance/ Emma Koehn, "Less bromance, more womance", ''Overland'' 22 January 2014] accessed 12 February 2015
  8. June 02, 2013, Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, [https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2013-jun-02-la-et-mistresses-20130603-story.html 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. ..."
  9. September 19, 2011, Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, [https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-xpm-2011-sep-19-la-et-two-broke-girls-20110919-story.html 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 ..."
  10. [http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/single-ish/2010/02/im-having-a-womance-and-im-lov Meanley E. I’m Having a Womance and I’m Loving It. FEBRUARY 4, 2010]
  11. Deborah Ross. The Spectator, 27 July 2013.
  12. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150212065637/http://www.tamborinedailystar.com/Home/Entertainment/tabid/197/ArticleID/229/One-Jucy-On-Screen-Womance-for-the-Gold-Coast.aspx 'One Jucy on Screen Womance for the Gold Coast', by Caroline Russo, ''Tamborine Daily Star'', November 9, 2010]
  13. 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
  14. [http://www.filmink.com.au/news/a-little-womance/ Genevieve Tait, "A Little Womance", ''Filmink Magazine'' 14 January 2009] accessed 12 February 2015
  15. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-ann-thompson/womance-vs-bromance_b_5576710.html Elizabeth Ann Thompson, "Womance vs. Bromance", ''The Huffington Post'' 11 July 2014] accessed 12 February 2015
  16. Townsend J. How To Be A Best Friend Forever: Making and Keeping Lifetime Relationships. Worthy Publishing. 2012. {{ISBN. 9781617950292
  17. Susan Wloszczyna, May 12, 2011, USA Today, [http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2011-05-12-bridesmaids-comedy_n.htm 'Bridesmaids': Here comes the raunch], Retrieved, "...."We were looking for an alternative to bromance," he says. "A 'womance.' .."
  18. Winch A. Girlfriends and Postfeminist Sisterhood. Palgrave Macmillan. 2013. {{ISBN. 9780230348752

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2010s-slangfriendshiphomosocialitywomen-in-society2010s-neologisms