[ll931110]

This could work, but with caveat. The tricky part is transition from close friends to partners, because while being close friends is the requisite for their love to blossom, there are a lot of unspoken assumptions that each party asks from the other that only romantic partners do. Also, when they know each other for years, they make assumptions about the other and have certain understanding of each other, hence departures from these assumptions could lead to devastating effect.

[b0rsuk]

The millions of men who have been "friend zoned" will probably beg to differ. Groups like "the red pill" insist that the road to love doesn't go through friendship, and that when it comes to opposite sex friendship is actually a dead end.

[acdha]

The “friend zone” is just an excuse some men come up with for not wanting to admit that attraction wasn’t mutual. It’s really creepy to think that they deserve sex for stringing someone along with the false pretense of being a friend — would they ever use “dead end” to describe a same sex friendship which didn’t lead to sex?

[b0rsuk]

And to answer the second part of your question, being bisexual(bi-curious) I wouldn't mind having sex with a male friend if he's in shape, and I would even propose if I lived in a less homophobic country. My same-sex attraction is much weaker though and I can control it, whereas with women it tends to be a slippery slope and gets stronger over time. The bottom line is being friends with a woman I actually desire is harmful to me in the long term. I've been there and not going to make that mistake again.

[b0rsuk]

And I think it's mildly insulting to be classified as a subpar male, a "male female friend". Worse, because she's not going to trust me as much as her proper female friends, she would always be on guard. Certainly damaging to the male ego. I don't cultivate such relationships unless I don't feel attracted to the woman in question. Think of the "disabled" "friend" of Mary from "There's Something About Mary".

[acdha]

> I don't cultivate such relationships unless I don't feel attracted to the woman in question.

This is certainly a common dynamic, with a lot of cultural reinforcement, but my point was simply that it's not the fault of the woman but rather the man who's trying to will something into existence and, in many cases, pretending to be something he's not.

[ll931110]

Sorry I was unclear. I am talking about dynamics of people whom became romantic couples after a long period of friendship, not relationship advice in general.

[lsc]

Ah, the "When Harry met Sally" question. "Can a man and a woman really be just friends?"

I mean, it's a valid question to ask, but "The red pill," as far as I can tell, is taking one side; that you can't really be just friends with someone you are really attracted to, and then building a worldview based on that answer. Which is fine, I guess, if everyone involved knows that is what is going on, but it's almost wholly unrelated to the "how do you make or maintain friendships?" question the article is trying to answer.