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can males and females be just friends?

im a female and i have a boyfriend. i have two male straight friends i am very close to. Can males and females be just friends or is there someone who feels attracted to the other?

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Original post by Anonymous
im a female and i have a boyfriend. i have two male straight friends i am very close to. Can males and females be just friends or is there someone who feels attracted to the other?

I don't think it works if the woman and man are heterosexual.

For it to work you would need both parties to share minimal romantic feelings/attraction.
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Anonymous
im a female and i have a boyfriend. i have two male straight friends i am very close to. Can males and females be just friends or is there someone who feels attracted to the other?

The simple answer is NO!! The male and female species are not designed for platonic relationships. Sexual feelings between male/female friends can be suppressed, delayed, or denied but they will always be there making it hard to be 'just' friends.
I don't understand why not. I'm bisexual, do I just have no friends? Lol!
Obviously. It's not a very good reflection on the people who say no.
There is a video on YouTube about this 10 years ago. You should watch it
Of course they can, don’t really get how people are still asking this question when the answer’s so obvious.
Yes, I'm a straight male and I have female friends who I've never had feelings for.
Original post by Anonymous
I don't understand why not. I'm bisexual, do I just have no friends? Lol!

It's something the stereotypical straight world has problems with. LGBTQIA+ folk don't seem (to my experience) the same hangups.
@CaptainDuckie you got the perfect answer for this
Reply 10
Original post by Anonymous
It's something the stereotypical straight world has problems with. LGBTQIA+ folk don't seem (to my experience) the same hangups.


It always amuses me to see straight people so incapable of forming platonic relationships like this. Not all but it seems the majority based on the amount of posts I've read over the years.
Original post by Anonymous
Can males and females be just friends or is there someone who feels attracted to the other?

These two things are not mutually exclusive. I'm always surprised at how many people seem to have a sufficient lack of faith in their own ability to control themselves that they don't think they can be or are allowed to be friends with someone of the opposite sex that they find attractive. I'm equally surprised at the number of people who are sufficiently insecure that they consider it unacceptable for their other half to be attracted to anyone who isn't them. In reality both of those things are notions that people should grow out of as they get older, because that's just not how the real world works.

I think there is probably a degree of physical attraction in a lot of guy-girl friendships. But, and it's amazing that I even need to say this, you can be attracted to someone without acting on that attraction. I have plenty of female friends and am attracted to a fair number of them. Will I act on that? No, because I am happily married and I am not even close to thinking that I could have a better relationship with any of the other women I'm attracted to than I have with my wife. You can tell I think that because I decided to marry her. And this is hardly a secret. My wife is aware of some of the women I'm attracted to that we know (not all; it's not as if we sit down and go through the list), just as I'm aware that she's attracted to some of the guys we know, or that she's friends with (again, I'm sure I don't know all of them).

All of that is entirely normal in the real world. You're never going to be in a relationship with someone who is not friends with, knows or spends time with members of the opposite sex that they find attractive. If you don't trust them not to act on that, you should not be in a relationship with them. If you cannot trust anyone you're with to not act on that, that's a mental barrier that you need to get over. If you are someone that feels you cannot be friends with someone if you have a physical attraction to them, I would suggest you try not to spend time with members of the opposite sex until you learn to exercise some self control. Because when everyone gets older, this question just becomes entirely redundant, and the sooner everyone reaches that point the better.
Original post by Anonymous
im a female and i have a boyfriend. i have two male straight friends i am very close to. Can males and females be just friends or is there someone who feels attracted to the other?

lol definitely they can be just friends! i think this world had made make/females friendships seem like there’s always going to be romantic feelings/basically are sexualised but not everyone is like that every time they see the opposite gender or hang out with them
Yeah, they can be.
I have loads of female friends. Even if you are attracted to each other you can still be friends lol. Once you're an adult you should have control over your emotions and good communication skills to be able to keep healthy friendships.
(edited 2 years ago)
Yes.
I'm female and most of my friends are guys.
I don't get sexually involved with friends or make friends with guys that I'm sexually attracted to.
Original post by Anonymous
im a female and i have a boyfriend. i have two male straight friends i am very close to. Can males and females be just friends or is there someone who feels attracted to the other

duh??? obviously
I'm asexual, so no worries about me being sexually attracted to my male friends. But 2 of my male friends are gay, and they're good friends... I don't see why you can't form platonic relationships with people of the opposite gender?
Original post by Anonymous
im a female and i have a boyfriend. i have two male straight friends i am very close to. Can males and females be just friends or is there someone who feels attracted to the other?

Hi,

I don't think this is as stupid a question as some people are making out. IMHO, I think it largely depends on the individuals and the environment they're in.

For example, at University, you're constantly meeting new people of either sex (e.g. people around your halls / courses; peoples mates from home coming up to visit; that person from your course who meets your housemates; people from your clubs & societies etc. etc. so IMHO, most people will learn to view the person behind the male / female body. In fact, I think that's one of the great social skills you get from an environment like a university.

On the other hand, if you left school at 16 and then went straight to work in an environment that's typically either male or female dominated (e.g. a car mechanic or a hairdressers), then you're more likely to mainly interact with people of the opposite sex in a social environment... so you're more likely to associate the opposite sex with the physical / sexual side... and such people may be more likely to view a male -female friendship with some suspicion.

So I think it ultimately depends on the individual... although IMHO, a genuine platonic friendship between a guy and a girl (i.e. one where there's no attraction on either side) can exist, I think they're very rare. In most cases, I think there's likely to be one who is secretly attracted to the other, even if it is just a little bit.
Yes, some people can be just friends.

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