Yes, contrary to what some might believe, men and women can maintain platonic relationships.
One of the oldest debates in the book begs a seemingly simple question: Can men and women really be just friends, or is there always an underlying sexual tension destined to throw a wrench in their feeble attempts at buddydom? To this day, this inquiry puzzles the masses. All one needs to do is take a gander through the annals of pop culture to see countless works of art suggesting that would-be platonic relationships between members of the opposite sex are often fraught with unspoken attraction, confusion and horniness. The latter is always there, as if to say, Hey, you’re a woman, and I’m a man. We have interchangeable body parts, so why thwart Mother Nature?
The older generations maintain that friendships between guys and gals simply aren’t possible, that no man can be around a woman for extended periods and not want to bend her over a table somewhere. They contend that this is just biology doing what it was intended to do—to procreate and populate, hell or high water. They’ll put forth that the two sexes were manufactured to do dirty things with each other, not to chum around with, drinking beer, telling jokes and slapping each other on the back. That’s what friends of the same sex are for—those are the rules. “I’ve been just friends with women, but I’ve definitely thought about having sex with them,” Jonathan, 47, tells HUSTLERMagazine.com, adding that there’s a fine line between buddies and beloveds. “All it would have taken to go that far would have been if they would have shown interest,” Jonathan admits.
“I’m straight, and most of my work friends are female. We go out for drinks after work all the time, and there’s never any sexual tension.”
