Can men and women be just friends? - proof within

[BiscuitTrouser]

So i was wandering the web today and i found this.


What do you make of these results? What do you think of friendships between men and women now. Before you quote experience of them, be aware that unless you can literally read that persons mind (or you were friends before the age of 5 during which reverse sexual imprinting takes place making friends/sister/brother relationships very possible) you can never know for sure how "one sided" a friendship can be.

I get on with my EX just fine, we are friends to a degree, definately not best friends, but we get on. Im not sure if that qualifies but ive never been best friends with a girl i didnt end up dating. It just happens, maybe its just me but i unintentionally fall for my best girl friends, and they do the same. Again my story means nothing on a global scale but it makes you think.

Equality and instant "OF COURSES" aside, ask yourself. Do these results show something? Is it just horny college students? Would adults be more willing to be just friends?

EDIT: fixed link

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

The situation is...complicated, to say the least, but I like to think that it is possible for a man and woman to look at each other in a way where their sex drives are not considered.

 

[Vampire cat]

Yes. Can all? No, I know some people personally that couldn't be friends with the oposite sex (or so it seems) because they constantly think sexually about them. It seems to be mostly common with people that doesn't have any/very few friends of the oposite sex from before.

I guess in my case it would be same-sex friendships that couldn't work but I don't have any trouble with that, maybe it's easier when your gay...

 

[The Human Torch]

I am friends with several women, and there is not a hair on my head considering sex or a partnership with any of them. Some are real lookers, but it's just not on my mind.

So yes, it is possible.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

....yeh hate to side with Deviate - maybe a little sweeping with that comment....but pretty much right- I personally can't think of any exceptions (from my personal experience)

And the main point It doesn't matter and to answer the question the OP posts, yes - a mature friendship can easily develop...and I'm pretty sure those thoughts are perfectly fine in said mature friendship - and I'm pretty sure most female half of the relationship doesn't give a monkies

 

[NoNameMcgee]

Of course we can, its a ridiculous question. I'm a man and most of my friends are women because I'm fairly in touch with my femininity and tend to get on with women more than I get on with men. Some of them I'm attracted to, that doesn't mean I want to have sex with them. A lot of them are in relationships anyway. Any mature minded person who doesn't have a one-track-mind can have good friends of the opposite sex.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

An extremely innacurate and biased experiment. You can't just go around asking a few people for opinions, editting in the ones that produced the results you wanted and call it "proof".

If I went into a church, asked 20 people if god's existence was an undeniable fact and 10 of them said yes, It would not be fair for me to edit those specific responses into a video clip and call it evidence, or even to draw conclusions from it at all. This "experiment" is unreliable and invalid.

In regards to whether or not men and women can be friends, I think that to a certain degree they can. The two will always feel for each other in slightly different ways,simply due to psychological reasons, and the woman may find it much easier to accept the relationship as friendship and nothing else, but eventually I think it can work out for both sides quite easily.

Girls: Every damn male friend you've had that aren't gay have had sexual thoughts about you.

Oh, because you know enough about every living human male on the planet well enough to make that assumption do you? It might be true of you, and I'm not calling that unreasonable, but do not state your personal experience as fact, and DO NOT speak for anyone but yourself. You're making the rest of us look bad.

 

[Smooth Operator]

never once has there been an issue where one person secretly wants to have sex with the other

I do believe the concept of secrecy eludes you.

OT: It's a very interesting survey that, but it doesn't show we can't be friends just that men are really horny bastards.
But we have been taming our primal beast of burden every single day since puberty, so ya we can still be friends and it helps if the other party is particularly ugly.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

Can women and men be just friends? Of course. Will the male have sexual thoughts about his friend? Hell yes. Does this somehow invalidate the friendship? No. The sexual thoughts about the friend is simply a result of the unfortunate biological truth that we have two heads and only enough blood to run one at a time. (Yes, the reality is more complex, but it's still as close to the truth as a thread like this needs.) It doesn't in any way mean that the friendship doesn't come first.

Girls: Every damn male friend you've had that aren't gay have had sexual thoughts about you. Does this change anything? Are they any less friends of yours?

I'm sorry but this is just a tiny bit totally totally wrong. What about having a female friend you're not even the slightest bit attracted to? Do those thoughts still develop? Men aren't attracted to ALL women. What the hell. For that matter, what about gay men? But I suppose thats going off topic a bit isn't it.

Besides there is a difference between attraction and actually wanting to do something about it. For those of my friends I'm attracted to, I realise we wouldn't work like that, and we're better as friends. At least you said it doesn't invalidate the friendship, so I can see where you are coming from. But if you have female friends, you can't tell me you have sexual thoughts about ALL of them unless its a mere coincidence that they all happen to be physically/emotionally attractive to you in some way.

 

[FrostyChick]

Yeah, a study like that might get you a scraping pass in your college social sciences class.
But present this for academic review and you would be laughed at.
The sample size was WAY too small.
They chose a minority notorious for representing the negative end of this question.
And from what I can tell from their attitude, they sound pretty douchey to me, I think some cherry picking was involved. Whether it be in who they picked to interview or which interviews they chose to show.
To be frank, a 3 minute youtube video is probably not the best place to be looking for real answers to complex problems.
Even Brainiac is more scientific than these asshats.