Can a man and a woman be JUST friends?

Wow this discussion is still going.
The Loner: From the sound of it, attitude can repel women and men alike and of course closed-mindedness are not a good thing to have either. You kept repeating that mantra over and over again about women, it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Unless you rather have your claim to become the truth to validate your own belief for some reason, well.. go hog wild I guess. The reality isn't as grim as how you think it, though.

I still stand by my claim: Women and men can surely be friends.

stumpy wrote:

Incidentally how much experience have you had with other races and in what different countries have you lived and travelled??

Appreciated your understanding, I'm aware that modest women treat men with reservation but you'd be surprised that even some of them seems to be influenced by the bad ones due to globalization and other causes as rc206 stated.

Not only have I visited few countries but also used to interact with people from all over the world since expats are everywhere  e.g. Language course classes, tours, various events  etc. Therefore I could observe different reactions from women and also when other men tried to approach them. I could post my personal experiences but there are far too personal and humiliating. I've never felt so insignificant in my life.

rc206 wrote:

I Don't know where you have travelled  or the women you have met.You are stereotyping all women in a few groups.

No, I'm not stereotyping all women since I'm aware that in some cultures they are open-minded and are more than glad to let men be their friends unconditionally; pretty much non-westernized or partially westernized countries, e.g. Some in Asia, the women there can be quite less inhibited or aprehensive as far as friendship goes.

rc206 wrote:

I have several women that have been my friends for many years.

Maybe you happened to be directly or indirectly within their social circle and for some reason they like you. But try to cultivate a fresh friendship from scratch with a women that appeals to you who you never seen before and tell me if you got any good response.

And Yes, American women have a bad reputation I think they have a bad influence to foreign women , just look up online and you'll get countless results including american men complaining and going for foreign women.

rc206 wrote:

As for rich women.Many have their guard up against guys who wants to steal there money.

I didn't get your line of thought. Are we all not supposed to guard up against thieves? Anyway these kind of women are cold,indifferent and apathetic about any guys who aren't in their social circle regardless of his benign intentions.

In answer to you having interacted with people from all over the world via courses, tours etc; to me this means that you have not met or mixed with the average person from whatever country, nor lived alongside them and worked with them as I have. 

In order to appreciate and experience 'real' people perhaps you should look at working for an NGO somewhere.This will give you a grass roots experience which would be a great learning curve.

However, you would have to approach this with an open mind and leave any preconceived ideas or prejudices behind. 

I have many women friends from different countries with whom I keep in touch with.

stumpy wrote:

Loner
In my 45+ years of living and working in developing countries I find quite the opposite. Poorer women do not treat one with disgust...

Exactly, nowadays things are not the way they were 45+ years ago. Things changed. Yesterday is gone. If you'd get a chance to be in your mid 20s like me and try to build a social circle of females you wouldn't get as good results and I'm sure you would understand fully my point of view. My generation is awful.

stumpy wrote:

to me this means that you have not met or mixed with the average person from whatever country, nor lived alongside them and worked with them as I have.

I didn't need to, since I also met with people like you who have been all over the world for 45+ years and they gave me an insight of how good things used to be back then.

stumpy wrote:

In order to appreciate and experience 'real' people perhaps you should look at working for an NGO somewhere.This will give you a grass roots experience which would be a great learning curve.
However, you would have to approach this with an open mind and leave any preconceived ideas or prejudices behind.

I'm truly an open-minded person but no to the point of naivety but no longer looking for friends much less with the opposite sex.

My 45+ years are still ongoing. So I am not stuck in a time warp.

You still need to get out there and experience things as they really are and not depend on what you read on forums.

If you are no longer looking for friends I trust you have a diverse number of friends from different ethnicities . If not, you may become rather insular.

plaindot wrote:

Wow this discussion is still going.

Can you believe it?

stumpy wrote:

My 45+ years are still ongoing. So I am not stuck in a time warp.

This reminds me of the song from Rocky Horror.

@Hailey
I'm a bit rocky on my feet and a horror to look at...

Better than the other way around, I suppose.

As far as i'm concerned, I think that friendship exists. Of course we can be friends and we can love eachothers but in limits

Yes can be..

yes but only if they r already in love with some other man or woman.