aconissa:

there’s really something to be said about the obsession with survivalist narratives and male relationships in the context of exploration and extreme physical environments. particularly when it is people within the lgbt community who get obsessed with male relationships in these contexts - with lonely cowboys, polar explorers, mountaineers, sailors on long voyages, and so on. with the way that these circumstances encourage camaraderie and enable a level of intimacy and tenderness that goes beyond what it traditionally allowed in homophobic societies, particularly in history. 

not only does this tenderness produce compelling gay subtext or explicit relationships, but it also features men who are expected to be the epitome of white cishet masculinity - adventurers, cowboys, captains, etc - but then fail to uphold these values once survival starts to become extremely difficult. they show that the image of these men is ultimately false and undesirable, and that human connection and kindness is more important. it gives us hope that love and tenderness are possible, and they will prevail over more negative human traits. and this is particularly powerful for lgbt folks struggling under a heteropatriarchal society rampant with toxic masculinity, where this tenderness often seems far from reach. repeatedly consuming media with stories of survival in extreme conditions becomes a hugely comforting reminder that people, even seemingly hyper-masculine cis men, are also capable of being tender and expressing their love for one another