Friendships: Just Friends?

Just Friends?

Men and women have their obvious differences. But have we come far enough for men and women to simply be friends without any other string attached? I am certain that at some point in every heterosexual man’s or woman’s life, this has been a question that we have pondered upon. Some say we have surpassed the standard gendered friendships, but due to each of the sexes’ personal benefits, emotional needs, and friendship goals, I do not believe that a man and a woman can strictly be just friends without one person wanting something more than the conventional friendship.

From a young age, we learn what it means to have a friend. According to the Free Dictionary, friendship is by far more than just sharing time together. A true friendship

Their results were kept private due to that in the events that one or the other person had any romantic feelings toward the other person it would not sabotage their relationship. And in order to ensure honest responses, the researchers followed a standard of protocols to keep their surveyors anonymous and to keep their confidentiality. They also required both people to agree verbally, and in front of each other, to refrain from discussing the study even after they would leave the testing facility. These friendship pairs were then separated, and each member of the pair was asked a series of questions related to his or her romantic feelings toward the friend with whom they were taking the study and the results were astonishing.

The results showed that men were much more likely to feel some sort of romantic attraction or benefit for their female friends, where as the women typically did not feel the same for the man. Not only did the male feel an attraction toward the female, they would also think that their female friend was reciprocating the same feelings towards them. Most, but not all of the women did not feel the same way towards their male friend