| I rather like this interpretation of the male-female friendships and why this 'friend-zone' thing exists. I'm not sure how much I agree with it currently, but it's food for thought: http://deepfriedcalamari.tumblr.com/post/10839417292/homosoc... In particular: > Homosocial bonding is different between men and women, and this causes a lot of confusion and why it’s assumed that men and women cannot be friends. > Men see their friendships as camaraderie, hanging out, occasional complaining, and chilling. There’s plenty of support mechanisms in place, but they’re not intimate, per se. > Women on the other hand are intimate, affectionate, they talk more about how they feel than how things happened. The support mechanisms are explicitly intimate. > So, men who are not used to intimate physical contact and discourse have to translate a person of the opposite sex being physically and emotionally intimate beyond the boundaries of relationships he is used to. Again, I don't want to generalize the linked text, but it was very accurate when I reflected on my own 'friend zone' experiences, and those my male friends have had. |