The Fear of Friendship: male bonding in an age of patriarchy

Male friendship can be a potentially very risky thing. Here Peter Marriott reflects on male friendships and how patriarchy impacts upon it.

‘Peter must learn that being able to understand poetry is not a reflection on his manhood.’

This was the comment of my English literature teacher in my school report back in the mid-1970s.

It reflected a widespread fear of homosexuality, which had only been legalised a few years before, in 1967. As a straight, young, working-class boy, the fear of any sor…