Of Course You Can!

Yes. Of course you can be “just friends” with another sex. I have decade old friends who I’ve never thought of in any way but platonic. You just get along and care about each other in a very non-sexual way. I don’t get the idea that you can’t have a bond with a person of another sex if they aren’t family or a potential partner. …That isn’t to say that Cristen’s point about people catching feelings doesn’t happen because it does, and it’s awkward for everyone. But you should be able to move past it by figuring out the “why all of a sudden” and discussing the matter. Or, I’d hope that you would because you’re friends.

 

I wonder if ideals about the restrictions on relationships really are formed by society and pop culture rather than the people who are in the actual relationship? That’s a disheartening thought (mostly because according to friend-people I am an oblivious weirdo who ignores/is ignorant to cultural norms I should follow *is one of those women who underestimates attraction*). I’ve had friendships with guys where we were fine, and then people started hinting at things that weren’t there, and making suggestions about “how cute” we’d be together, and questioning “future plans”, and~ it just made everything really strained and we became paranoid that the other would cross that line, make a confession, ruining everything (which was pretty ironic considering how much our fretting had already ruined our friendship). I might be alone, but I’m of the mind that if women are interested, we should let you know the same way men do – by saying so and then making out with you. It’s a pretty straight forward approach that’s impossible to misunderstand. As affectionate as I am with friends, I’m not that patient that I’d take the chance that some gem I was interested in would be ignored by other women long enough for him to get a clue and ask me out. If it’s cool, I’ll just ask for your number straight up. Interested? Nice~ Not interested? Okay.  The only exception to that rule would be if he was in a relationship. If he was hot enough, I might just wait for that shit to fall apart.