to think you should NEVER trust a woman who doesnt have female friends?

[HallnotOates]

and wonder how they have not accrued any in their life - or what they have done to them to piss them off - or why they can ONLY relate to men?

I am a little confused, what constitutes a Friend? Is it someone that you confine your secret thoughts too. Someone that does not pass on things you say or tell them. I work with many people who are very pleasant to me on a day to day meeting, we share small talk ,work grumbles weather holidays etc: does that make them my friends ? Or would I need to spend out of work time with them to class them as friends.some of them I share common interests with, but only talk for short periods on subjects,I find people tend to want to tell me their problems but are not interested in asking if I have any.
I do not pass on things to others so end up feeling like an agony aunt storing up others problems that I can not resolve.
The men I work along side are just as bitchy as the women ,the ones that don't do become clear over time.

I'm afraid I completely fail to see how any balanced, open person with a wide network of contacts can really write off women and assume they almost universally have the characteristics that many of you are attributing to them (even if you qualify it by saying it's only when they're in groups). This assumption that we all sit around bitching and talking about make up and boys when we get together is insulting and ridiculous, and I have never been "stabbed in the back" - a situation some of you seem to deal with on a daily basis - by a female (or male for that matter) friend.

'I think those without some good female friends are clearly outside the sisterhood, thus must be not my type.'

This sisterhood thing really upsets me. I think I'd like to be part of it but I don't really understand it. Perhaps it's this attitude (quote above) that makes people thing women are, well, bitchy?

The girls at school didn't consider me their 'type' either because I didn't understand the rules...I wasn't setting out deliberately to piss anyone off. I just didn't know the right handshake iyswim

and neither did some of the nicest people I ever knew at school...loads of us didn't know the way in. But we all realised this by sixth form. Shame it took us years of being giggled about and excluded to figure this out.

I still don't have a clue what the "way in to the sisterhood" is. Anyone care to enlighten me? :)

Sorry, I don't have time to read the thread yet, so I apologise if I have repeated someone. What if they don't have any male friends, what does that say?

I have a 'friend' with a personailty disorder who is very controlling, manipulative and blames everyone for her problems (including her friends)

Just one example, she blamed me for her partner leaving her as I suggested she stopped doing 100% of the housework. Consequently, she cannot keep a single female friend.

With women who have no female friends, mental health issues could have a part to play

(speaking as someone who doesn't fit in socially, but has a couple of very close female friends)

Do you trust this friend any less though? It's the linking of not having many/any female friends to being untrustworthy that I don't get. Do you worry they are going to steal your purse if you leave your handbag near them?
I have a few female friends scattered round the UK who I see rarely as we are all busy. I'm not about to nick anyone's handbag though.

I really don't understand the whole, I only have men friends cos women are all "bitches" stereotype, it is sickening. Also shows up some strange kind of biased world view where they are obviously blind to men being "bitches" or whatever the word is for the male equivalent of talking about people behind their backs, commenting about the appearance of other people, ignoring them and all those things that men actually do that don't have labels traditionally applied to women, such as "gossiping" or "back-stabbing" or "bitching".

It's all such societal gender stereotyping where the same male behaviour is seen as more "honest". Like ignoring someone, a man does it because they don't like someone well they're being honest about it, and if they talk to someone they hate, well it's rising above it. A woman does it and she's being a bitch, but if she talks to them she's then being two-faced. I mean WTF?!?

Neither do I, cereal. I mean we figured out that none of us got it, it was just a few people who thought they were somehow better than us because of that.

2Rebecca, I think they probably are talking about not trusting these women around their husbands or something...thinking being that women who dislike/don't get on well with other women will automatically be a threat in terms of infidelity.

I mean it CAN be true that someone who has a problem with other women and likes men generally will be ruthless enough to not particularly care if another woman gets hurt by their becoming involved with someone's husband.

But that's by no means universal law.

At risk of being unpopular I know what u mean the vast majority of women IME who don't have
rfemale friends are usually so innapropriate around womens BF's they dont want anything to with them. obviously there are exceptions

As I've already said, I don't see what is so very wrong about people having preferences - for the company of men, or of women. It may be pathological, but as long as they handle it with grace and tact where's the harm?

But people who justify their preferences by slagging off the rest of the gender that they inhabit - who consider that they, almost uniquely among women, are not bitchy or nasty - definitely have something wrong going on.

I prefer female company but I love chatting with men too. On FB I chat more with men and I love the difference - men have a certain way of talking ( a bit more straight to the point ) I need that buzz.

I love going out to eat with men. I generally find I can eat as much as I like and no one notices; but with a group of women, you often get competitive eat-as-little-as-possible.

It's not 'oh they'll nick my husband'. More a generalised unease about women who have this view of all other women as 'bitches' and 'back stabbers'.

Ha ha belgo - ikwym >
I tend to find men funnier too, less inhibited.