In a The Hollywood Reporter
story looking at straight stars who court gay fans, Channing Tatum,
Nick Jonas and Chris Hemsworth are described as “straight plus
homo.”
The story, which appears in the July
3rd issue, coins the term “stromo,” the result of
blending “straight” and “homo.”
“Today's stromos are the flip side of
gay actors who want to read straight for their careers: They are
straight actors striving to read gayish to optimize their appeal –
and maximize the number of butts, gym-molded or otherwise, in movie
theater seats,” the
magazine wrote.
“Stromos don't necessarily have to
walk the walk but can talk a good game about their man-crushes: Ryan
Reynolds admits that if he were gay, it would be with Robert
Pattinson. Daniel Radcliffe says he would fancy Ryan Gosling (who
wouldn't?). In times past, when Marlboro men and tough-guy icons
like Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro
reigned, bromance subjects Pattinson and Gosling might have sued or
worse at any implication of gayness. That's not the case today.”
Editors describe James Franco as the
“ultimate stromo” for his many gay roles.
The article ends with a quote from
British social critic Mark Simpson, who coined the term metrosexual
in 1994: “Women no longer own that province of objectification.
Straight men now want to be sex objects – and what better way to
get objectified than by other penised human beings?”