Unicorns, Mermaids and Platonic Friends – Do They Really Exist?
Ladies, I know what you’re thinking – because I thought the same thing:
“Well, what if the guy has absolutely no physical attraction at all towards the woman? They can be platonic friends, right?”
Maybe, but here’s why I doubt it:
- No unattached man is going to willingly spend a good amount of his free time with a woman he is completely not attracted to, or who isn’t attracted to him. Especially when you consider that…
- …If you spend most of your free time with someone of the opposite sex willingly, there’s at least a 50% chance that at least one of you will develop sexual feelings or has already developed them but fear they won’t be reciprocated. I just don’t see how two people who are of the same sexual orientation would spend most of their time together and no one can or will catch feelings. It just seems like the law of averages, or probability…or something like that!
Since I’ve already established that most people don’t actively seek opposite sex friends while single, the only way two people can become truly platonic friends would be if they happened to first meet each other while already in a relationship, which is kinda tricky considering…
- Most men and women would not be okay with their significant other making new, close friends of the opposite sex. You know this. Bring up your new, opposite sex friend’s name more than once and your partner will be looking at you sideways like “who is this chick/dude you’re always talking about/talking to?” Yeah, the “no new friends, no new friends” rule applies here.
Now I know you all think that this is a jaded view of platonic friendship, and most of this was written tongue-in-cheek. I’m sure platonic friendships exist…somewhere. But were they intended to be that way? All I know is that out of my experiences and those of my close friends, we’ve all tried – at least once – to have a strictly platonic friendship, only for someone to catch feelings, flirt or have one night of crying on a shoulder resulting in some very “unplatonic” things happening. But hey, that’s just me.
Again, I’m not saying platonic friends don’t exist, but then again, when was the last time you saw a unicorn?
