Can a man and a woman be JUST friends?

I think it is almost impossible for any man/woman friendship to stay platonic forever - there is always sexual tension and I am sure individual thoughts will stray towards possibilities. After all, if the friendship is good wouldn't a relationship be better. What is a perfect relationship - where man and woman can be friends (no bias against same sex relationships here, just discussing) - so why limit a man/woman to just friends. However, if each is already in a separate committed relationship then it is a possibility - but fraught with danger and risk about their respective partners getting jealous - so here the friendship is doomed to being limited and not the way true friendship should - there will always be awkwardness.

Hence, a good friendship should always e allowed to progress to a good relationship and it is doubly important for a good relationship to have a strong foundation in friendship.

My take on this is - folks do not fight any urge for a friendship to progress logically - will always create a beautiful relationship and if a relationship is stuttering then look to grounding it in friendship

This is not to say that I am right in this - maybe I am not, but my tuppence into the mix for anyone to comment upon

Take care folks and be good or be careful - viva la friendship - may us all be afflicted by lots of good ones

To Grandpooba - Yup!

can be...if the girl is not interested...mdr

kshah wrote:

lolz. be nice.

What's not nice?  He said women are delusion to think men are not desperate for sex.  I simply asked if they actually want to sleep with every single woman they meet.

mas fred wrote:

Not at all.
Most really old and/or ugly women are exempted from this.

However, it is in a man's make up to breed. Men have to resist the temptation because of social conditions, not because they don't want to.

Women don't want to breed?

I'm starting to feel sorry for some of the men here.  I'd hate to have to limit my friendships because I could only see the other gender in sexualized terms.

Thank you for your sympathy.  Now how about some sympathy sex?  We'd take it.  LOL. 

Hmmmm....desperate - I didn't say that - If an attractive female put the heat on a male that wasn't desperate (getting sex regularly).  There's a good chance he would probably have sex w/the 2nd female.  Again-Not all men, and according to how likely he would get caught, needs to be taken into account.

That's part of the problem - the Mars/Venus dichotomy.  Most women just don't understand men and vice/versa.  You expect men to agree/understand your point of view and we go along with it in hopes of the ultimate reward.  Which fuels the delusions of the females.

ralph.pratt wrote:

Hmmmm....desperate - I didn't say that - If an attractive female put the heat on a male that wasn't desperate (getting sex regularly).  There's a good chance he would probably have sex w/the 2nd female.  Again-Not all men, and according to how likely he would get caught, needs to be taken into account.

You said you - or rather men - would accept sex "at the drop of a hat" from any of their female friends if they had any.  That sounds pretty desperate to me.

Love_Prisioner wrote:

men and women CANNOT be just friends.

If you can't do it then no one can?

Well its depends on the individual and for some reason...i would yes..

Yes they can, my best friends are female and we have never been intimate  with one another.

actually, the debate is interesting, with two groups in favor of it and one against it.

now we know that the against ones must be the ones who either don't understand friendship or the ones, who messed up such friendship by complicating it with either getting emotional or expecting more than just pure friendship.

but those in favor,...you guys are just interesting.
i will tell you where i belong to in end.. but for me definitely its yes. i mean one who needs a good friend... never bothers if its a girl or a boy, but one who makes a choice first , with whom he/ she want his/her friend to be ...sure got something else in mind.

[moderated: inappropriate post]

lets see who agrees with me and who has some other point of view.

Yes, off course man and woman can be friends and they may have good friendship level but what I observed in my life experience there is mostly cases that when both man and woman become desperate for each other and they finally fall in love to each other.
So, 90% cases of man and woman friendship changes into love stories.  In some cases if suppose both of them are married to another partners but they are working together in same place then they may remain good friends or colleagues.

o sure........

Hi....it depends on the situation,i had my bestfriend man!evn i know that he likes me in the firt place but i refuse!anyway,nobody can force a woman to do the things she really don't like it's a matter of respect!!!

They CAN'T be just friends:  men and women live, work, and play side-by-side, and generally seem to be able to avoid spontaneously sleeping together. However, the possibility remains that this apparently platonic coexistence is merely a "façade", an elaborate dance covering up countless sexual impulses bubbling just beneath the surface.
_______________________________
Me against the world.

Yes, it is possible. Fortunately, most of my ex-bfs are my friends.  We openly discussed personal problems and gives advices too.

The Loner wrote:

They CAN'T be just friends:  men and women live, work, and play side-by-side, and generally seem to be able to avoid spontaneously sleeping together. However, the possibility remains that this apparently platonic coexistence is merely a "façade", an elaborate dance covering up countless sexual impulses bubbling just beneath the surface.

The Loner wrote:

I've never had a female friend, let alone a girlfriend,And i know nothing about them

There is an obvious question here.

I disagree completely.

HaileyinHongKong wrote:

I disagree completely.

But opposites attract...

Of course not! Physical attraction is a friendship killer !! But if both male and female friends have common interest, this would be another story

Yes, off course they can be good friends but remember that once this friendship gets the highest level of understanding then this friendship turns into the needy-relationship which ultimately named as love. So, the conclusion is that mostly man-woman friendship turns into another form of relationship. Those who are greedy or lusty take advantage and turns this pure friendship into the sexual pleasure while those who really believes in true love turns their relationship into a respectful relationship i.e. marriage to each other.

Definitely! And even if there's an attraction - nothing cant be discussed properly. No need to go beyond friendship if that's what you both seek. It just take proper setting of expectations.

Possible if there is no physical attraction

all the times!

Ah, women and men can be friends, even really close friends that's a no brainer for sure...
It will only get murky if one of them think they can't be friends with the opposite sex or just simply have no interest in platonic relationships with the opposite sex. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that, people just have different priorities...

But... to decide they absolutely can't be just friends at all... well, I find that maybe a little bit far-fetched

probably yes!

MinaLil wrote:

Of course not! Physical attraction is a friendship killer !! But if both male and female friends have common interest, this would be another story

Of course they can't?  There's no way it's at all possible...unless they have common interests?  How many friends do you have with whom you have no common interests?

Since this will probably be misunderstood by someone somewhere, let me put it another way.  Are you saying that men and women can only be friends if they have common interests?  If so, don't most friends have common interests?

plaindot wrote:

But... to decide they absolutely can't be just friends at all... well, I find that maybe a little bit far-fetched

I agree completely, but you have to remember that a lot of the men here see women as either servants or whores.  In their minds, women can never be their equal.  And in their case, they are very correct.

HaileyinHongKong wrote:

I agree completely, but you have to remember that a lot of the men here see women as either servants or whores.  In their minds, women can never be their equal.

Now I have no doubt that you are a feminist, why is it that you want to be a man? Are you not content with your gender? Snap out of it and content yourself  with being a female. I mean you have the privilege to give birth so the humankind don't become extinct and the world won't end

Hericles:
Well... if you think about it, why not? I don't think it's a matter being a man or a woman, I just think it is quite unfortunate to think that half of the population to only have a certain purpose when nowadays there are opportunities to do more than that... I mean, I don't think we still need to repopulate this earth, in fact, we probably should slow down a little...

Why limit yourself, after all we all only live once.

I disagree with the men here who hate women, so that means I want to be a man?  That doesn't make any sense at all.

I'm not content with being a woman.  I'm head over heels ecstatic about it.

That totally depends on both Man & Women and how honest & real beside how how much mature they are.. but mostly yes although in many successful man & women friendships ended later to be being life partners or getting married together

Everything's impossible ...
But sometime, a man often misunderstand between 'friend' and 'love', it make the relation broken easily. In fact, they're actually best friends.

yes, i also have a very close woman friend

Yes of course man / woman can be just friends .. I have made new friends on here and he is a man also I have made women friends .so why not have, male /female friends.
I would think it something normal, Sex with the opposite has to have an attraction ,the people who you can open your heart up to and never be judge are the real people who make the world go around ... so yes in my opinion its okay to have friends of the opposite sex .. blessing Eli x

thaonguyen1990 wrote:

Everything's impossible ...

I have to disagree.

Or at least I would disagree, were it possible.

Humans were never meant for platonic relationships. We were just not engineered to be like that. Thats why looks and attractiveness matters.

VOW !  Mass fred,,

The same undoubtedly must have been done by your sister and daughter.

If this trend is in family,  they all fine...no one has right to object it at all..

Sorry guys for my previous comments.  I really thought its the forum of people with morality.

This extra-marital sex relationship is forbidden in every relegion.

Do all what you want to do guys. The day of judgement would seperate right from wrong.

Then there will be no use of regret.