It is exactly how the mind educated into promiscuity works
That goes for all social circles.
A real plague.
Friendship is difficult nowadays because of such perversion. Frodo and Sam are also victims of that.
Discussion
It is a current trope on pop culture (in general, not just the American one, but any tainted by the same plague). It is burnt in the minds of that kind of consumer.
I have forgotten when I saw an episode of some American sitcom where the two female characters were having a chat at the kitchen table that went on around these lines:
Woman 1
"Do you remember that movie about the two gay men in the mountains?"
Woman 2
"The Brokeback Mountain?"
Woman 1
"No! The lord of the rings."