"i'm very confident and comfortable with my sexuality." So much so that he almost seems baffled by my questions about further sexual experimentation with Leo: "nope, never happened haha!" It isn't about sex, he says. He gamely tells me via Facebook chat about his relationship with Leo: "i'll hug him, kiss on the cheek anything! we're so close, we genuinely don't care what other people think," he writes. Take the "no homo" meme where guys say something "gay" like, "Hey man, nice shoes," followed by the caveat "no homo."Īnderson tells me that no stats will convince me of this trend better than talking to some of these boys myself, so he introduces me to John, the British 16-year-old. It's certainly true that the concept of "metrosexuality" loosened up mainstream understandings of male straightness in the '90s, and the past decade introduced the "bromance" into our cultural lexicon with movies like "I Love You, Man." These are signs of progress, to be sure, but they still reek of defensive heterosexuality. As homophobia continues to decrease at a rapid rate, "boys don't have to align their behavior with extreme masculinity - they can move much closer toward femininity." Nowadays, it's typically "extreme femininity" that's being targeted: "It's more femme-phobia than it is homophobia," he claims. Anderson, author of "Inclusive Masculinity: The Changing Nature of Masculinities" along with two other academic books about male sexuality, says it's remarkable that these news stories even exist - it used to be that families would be too ashamed to admit that their child was a homosexual. It also seems to blatantly contradict recent headlines about bullied gay teens committing suicide. His hypothesis runs counter to a New York Times piece just over a week ago about how boys are discouraged from having intimate friendships. he found 7 percent of heterosexual college guys had smooched a straight male pal - but his in-depth studies of American jocks and frat boys, those expected to be the most homophobic, have revealed them to be increasingly comfortable with same-sex physical and emotional intimacy, he says. had at least once kissed a straight male friend on the lips. In a recent study, he found that 90 percent of heterosexual undergraduate men in the U.K. "It is normal in the United Kingdom for young straight boys to sleep in the same bed, frequently, and to cuddle," says Anderson, who has primarily focused his research on white males living above the poverty line. These may seem like startling displays of same-sex affection and innuendo for a pair of heterosexual teenage boys - even despite their blow-dried Justin Bieber bangs - but Eric Anderson, an American sociologist, says it's part of a larger trend among teens and young adults. On the boys' respective profiles they leave each other comments reading, "I love you," sometimes in all-caps, along with teeny-tiny heart icons. It culminates with a shot of the British teens holding up their shirts to reveal their tanned, washboard stomachs and the elastic waistbands of their designer underwear. Then, a few snapshots into the Facebook photo album, the baby-faced 16-year-old softly kisses his friend on the cheek.
![two gay anime guys cuddling two gay anime guys cuddling](https://images.theconversation.com/files/126844/original/image-20160616-19959-onrube.jpg)
![two gay anime guys cuddling two gay anime guys cuddling](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/f8/93/98f89357e29c4e11faf6edea795e76c2.png)
![two gay anime guys cuddling two gay anime guys cuddling](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB18y8xfGSWBuNjSsrbq6y0mVXam/New-yaoi-Anime-Ten-count-10-count-two-side-Pillowcases-Hugging-Pillow-Cushion-Case-Cover-Cosplay.jpg)
It starts with "John" hugging "Leo" tightly.