To think this comment about women with no female friends is problematic?

YANBU It’s a silly comment. Friends are situational and mainly made by chance.

That’s not what the OP says though - it’s specifically about friendships with women. It they can maintain friendships with men but won’t with women, that’s very different from struggling to maintain friendships at all.

My experience is quite the opposite! She thinks women don’t like her because they are so jealous of how beautiful and captivating she is, and are worried about her stealing their men away.

When in reality they aren’t remotely jealous but are giving the obvious dramarama a wide berth.

...And probably reinforce the negative idea they have of women

You are as bad as they are - making assumptions about their meaning and what's led them to make that statement

I do wonder if I'm on the spectrum, my dd has autism and we share a lot of the same traits.

I find women who make statements like that entirely tedious.

Thank you for saying this.

YANBU. The women I’ve come across that struggle to maintain friendships are often on the spectrum. Its fucking rude not fair to claim they’re a red flag

I always think judgemental is one of the overused words on MN but there really are a lot of judgemental comments on this thread.

I used to agree with this but not anymore as I’ve realised it’s mostly down to luck whether you meet people and click with them. It also depends on how you define friendship and the boundaries you hold (and the boundaries your friends have) too, I’m thinking of the people who have a horrible friendship group, they have friends but aren’t really friends.
I know a couple of lovely women who don’t have many friends but there isn’t some underlying red flag, they just don’t come across many women in their day to day lives. I also know a couple of awful people (one who’s actually violent) who still have friends, so it’s no indication.

I think people of either sex who are only friends with one sex are red flags, really. Once you're an adult that's a conscious choice (with circumstantial exceptions, but they're rare), so that means you think one sex isn't worth being friends with, or you're so limited that whether you relate to someone is dependent on their genitalia.

I think it's too much of a blanket statement, and I'd think less of someone who went around saying it (and likely thinking it made them sound clever).

There are too many reasons why someone may not have female friends, male friends, or any friends at all. The mere fact a woman has no female friends means little, taken in isolation. If they're not a good person for whatever reason, that will become obvious from their behaviour, not the sex of their friends.

I agree totally!

I have very few female friends.

Part of it is because I'm socially inept. It's recently been suggested that I have ADHD and ASD. No real surprise, since I've had an OCD diagnosis for 30 yrs and there's ASD in my family.

As a little girl, I preferred playing with boys because I much preferred playing at spacemen, etc and I preferred boys' comics to The Bunty, etc. (Though I quite enjoyed Mandy.)

I wish it had been otherwise. I found out the hard way that some boys are dangerous.

Part of it however, is that I spent years working and caring for my parents and then my late husband.

i do get upset when I see such judgemental comments. I'm okay putting on "a mask" and speaking to folk in shops, etc but I've no children so I've found that that somewhat constrains interacting with other women to an extent. Maybe I am just a weirdo.

I joined an SF forum some years ago, and found it easier to interact with other women on there. When my husband died, the support that I got was wonderful. One young woman and her family edited the music for my husband's funeral for me. (Lockdown - I was only allowed pre-recorded non-copyrighted music.)

I worked as a teacher for 40 yrs, but there's a lot of acting involved in that job, so I was fine. I recall not knowing how to interact with other teachers in the women's staffroom when I first started.

Anyway, just to say that I agree with the OP.

In your opinion. Whenever I've met a woman who says she prefers men, she says things like: women are bitchy, catty, too complicated, gossip, too girly, bullies, uninteresting etc

I don't think they're man eaters at all, I think they have a very poor view of women to which they are always the exception.

I don’t bother having any friends! Got my partner and my kids happy with that.

And so much less rewarding 😉
(See the current trending thread about men being simple creatures who want a shag and a dinner and that’s about it)

Being serious, I agree with Nigella that a woman who can’t or won’t sustain friendships with other women would have me look askance. Barring trauma, it is a red flag.

I think it can be a bit dismissive. People vary a lot. Some women may have a small number of friends and traditionally male interests. They may work in a male dominated industry and move around a lot so have mainly work friends. When I was in my late teens and only had male 'friends', I genuinely wanted friendship and was very lonely but was experiencing all kinds of abuse or if they weren't doing that they'd be claiming to be friends until making their next move. Luckily I have a mix of great male and female friends now but certainly don't judge people along prurient lines like that, although I am very selective.

I suppose you could argue that viewing women who have male friends as man eaters may be a wee bit misogynistic (because that’s what it’s all about let’s be honest).

I'm pretty close to my parents, and adult dds.

Did you miss this at the end of my post? I don't rely on only one person for all my emotional needs. I also do a lot of things alone, because I like to.

I personally don't think that men with female friends are particularly less objectifying of women. You only have to read many of the threads on here, where long standing male friends have "suddenly" wanted to get into their female friends knickers the minute she's divorced or widowed for example. Or even single women whose male friend makes a lewd remark after she thought he was a good buddy. I can add quite a few experiences of my own to that too - sadly.

@KendraTheVampyrSlayer

Because it’s foolish to rely on your spouse for all your emotional needs. There’s no way of knowing for sure if the marriage will survive (just under half of all marriages don’t).

Because even if your marriage lasts you are shutting down your life if you only see one other person. You massively limit your life.

Because it’s really important not to live in one another’s pockets.

Because seeing a range of people gives you perspective on situations.

Because it’s important to have an independent third party to bounce ideas and opinions off.

And because spending all your time with one person is boring, however much you love them.

Men are generally easier in my experience.

How so?

Well aren’t you lovely.

I have few female friends. Men are generally easier in my experience.