It is interesting to me that historically speaking males often carried on far more meaningful relationships, even casually speaking, between one another without risking ostracism as a Fop, Sodomite, etc. One of the best areas to view what we might call "male-bonding" of a purely non-sexual nature today, was often seen during war. A wealth of written wartime correspondence and memoirs illustrate this point in a way many today would find surprising. No doubt the terrifying and traumatic nature of warfare itself had a lot to with it, but these relations were often cultivated before a young man set foot upon the field of battle. You occasionally hear terms of phrases like "We Band of Brothers" or German "Kommeradschaft" to the day.
Simply put, males were able to be affectionate toward or show great respect or admiration for other males without being suspected of ulterior, homosexual motives. This decidedly healthy attitude extended to brothers and familiy members as well. While predictably, some insist there is hidden or latent homo-eroticism in it, I do not see it that way. I used to be very active in historical reenacting and so-called Living History events and was a voracious reader of first hand historical documents from the America Civil War through the Second World War. This purely platonic male-bonding runs throughout these written accounts and as original-source material betrays none of the homosexuality some may wish to read thereinto.(now, about that conspiracy link Norsemaiden spoke of...
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Somehow, in the post counter-culture decades we have grown increasingly "homophobic" to borrow the term, but not in an anti-gay manner so much as an unfortunate eroticising of virtually all closer male interaction and relationships beyond perhaps, team-sports. Males rarely have close friends as they once commonly did. I know this is the case with nearly all males I know personally. Sad really...
Don't know if there was an overriding point here...just a topical observation.
