Can Men & Women Really Be Friends?

"Friends with Benefits" – better than I expected. Laugh out loud even.

It’s the “When Harry met Sally” of the new generation. They are rom coms so yes the last third of these movie hits emotional moments of hormonal proportions. The girls get weepy and the boys are oblivious until they have the realisation that they won’t do any better than this and they make some grand romantic gesture that wins the girl over. Awwww….really?

 It poses the age old question of “Can men and women be friends? Or does sex get in the way?”

Harry/Billy Crystal said “No it can’t be done, not if one finds the other attractive.”

Sally/Meg Ryan – “So you can be friends with a woman if you don’t find her attractive?”

Harry/Billy – “No – you pretty much wanna nail them too?”

Gotta love the Honesty

So – CAN MEN AND WOMEN BE FRIENDS?

I used to think so – I treated everybody the same had lots of male friends. Then I got married. Suddenly the nights out I used to have with my boys became “boys nights” with my husband and I was excluded and at times laughed at for even thinking I could hang out with them. Sexism is alive and strong in our society.

To add to that, when I got divorced many of my male friends cut me out altogether because they decided they liked my ex better than me or something. Bros before hoes or some such crap.

Someone (a boy) tried to explain to me that once a guy has a girlfriend/wife/defacto/partner then they need to get away from a female influence because they have it in their lives as a constant. But when they are single then they are happy to have a female in their presence simply for that dose of female essence.

But it’s true – the reality of when my male friends started drifting away coincided with them getting girlfriends/wives/partners. 

Now I have “girls nights out” with friends that need to get away from their husbands and boyfriends. I love my girlfriends (always there when I need them) but I still don’t understand why men and women can’t enjoy each other’s company without sex getting in the way. 

And this probably explains why I am single – my inability to understand or accept social norms.

(And yes - this post will probably get me in trouble with any male friends I still have - oops, forgive me!)