Tolkien largely excluded women from his stories—I don’t think there’s a single one in The Hobbit—but he had genuine insight into not just the male society he belonged to, but its differing permutations passed down out of classical and Anglo-Saxon legend and historical record.
Source: I Would Have Followed You: Masculine Love and Devotion in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings – VRV Blog
Great meta on LotR and how its men are allowed to have and show emotions. Unsurprising that in our post-homosocial society we often read these deep relationships as gay, resulting in some of the most iconic slash ships (looking at you, Holmes & Watson!)…