Do you have any male friends?

[Invasionofthegutsnatchers]

I thought I did
Thought we were in the friend zone.
He has feelings for me. I'm upset that the friendship might be over now.

Do platonic friendships exist?

Yes I have a couple of male friends where its not weird at all and never has been. Even when both single, its never been weird. These are long long term friends.

Also have male friends who are partners of female friends and i like them a lot, but i would generally only see them with other people.

I have lost lots of male friends over the years though as so many of them try it on. I back off if i think they see me romantically or sexually. Cant be doing with it and i never relax around them after that. Its a shame though as i do enjoy male company and energy, but am massively uncomfortable with flirting and so many men think youre flirting if youre friendly to them, its not worth it in most cases. All my closest friends are women

Yes I have platonic male friends. At least-they are from my point of view- I’m married and they’re proper gents, but who knows what’s going on in their heads?

Me and my husband meet up with other couples together, we dont meet up solo with a opposite sex friend.

Thats just how it helps work with us.

Male friends can be great, especially if they get along with your partner too. I tend to avoid now after bad experiences. I suppose with healthy boundaries it's fine. I'd also distance myself if a friend decided they fancied me, or I them.

All my friends except one are men, most of them I met through a hobby which is traditionally male dominated.

Many of them

All platonic, a side effect of working in male dominated workplaces for much of my late teens - mid 20s

I’ve actually recently made one. Through a mutual hobby, which limited women are interested in. He’s married, seemingly Vapor & speaks nicely about his wife, so hoping all is good…….

Yes. Been friends for 30 years.

That should say seemingly very happy

I am not very social but I work with a lot of men and I generally get along with them ok. One or two have been close mates but that's because we have common interests. I'm not into anything else but being friends.

If your "friend" has romantic feelings for you and you definitely don't, it might be time to drift away...

My very best friend was male when I was younger. There was nothing in it apart from very close friendship. I've never been as close to a female! We eventually ended up drifting apart due to leading different lifestyles etc, and both have families now. I really miss him sometimes

But yes they can be platonic

Yes, from school, from uni, from (male-dominated) work. There are those where one or other of us initially had some non-platonic thoughts, even a couple who were boyfriends decades ago. But others have only ever been platonic, almost like brothers- and I'm fairly sure they think similarly, after pulling up one of them on some sexist comments (phwoar, she looks all right, sort of thing,) and he responded, "you don't count, you're one of us!" Still doesn't make the comments okay, and it implies I'm not even seen as a woman, so I don't know.

My best friend was male. He's a good 10 years older than me, met through work about 8 years ago and were incredibly close with his whole family, I was good friends with his wife, and my children and his got along well. I left my exdh and was single for 4 years, when I got with my now DP he admitted he had feelings for me and always had done and blocked me on everything, we bumped into each other in Tesco a few months back and cleared the air but it will never go back to the way it was.

I have lots of male friends. Never once have boundaries been blurred. I would be so upset if that had happened

Only one who is straight. He is an actual friend that i meet one on one and WhatsApp

Casual acquaintances only. The ones I thought were friends when I was young made it plain they “definitely would,” which is enough to kill the friendship stone dead.

I think some men are socialised to see emotional closeness and sharing your thoughts and concerns as “next step is shagging” because they lack deep male friendships.

Yes I have several close male friends. I've always got on with men - I think it's because I have brothers and was considered a bit of a Tomboy myself (sorry that expression makes me cringe and I know it's old fashioned and un-pc). I've know these men 20 years or more so I don't have any suspicions that they're interested in me. Men and women CAN be friends.

Gay male friends yes.
Straight male friends no

My best friend is a man. We're both heterosexual. We've been friends for 20 years since freshers week and are both happily married to other people. Our respective spouses look very different to the way we look, so I suppose it confirms that there was never any physical attraction there!

Yup I've had a number of male friends, some gay some straight. The ones that have lasted are where neither of us is attracted to each other and we both know where we are (and there's no confusion). Although I'd now say I'm friends with my ex husband - who you'd assume did find me attractive at some point. He was a good friend before we got together though, known each other over 20 years.

Me (widowed lesbian) and ex husband (gay, single) are good friends. I don't have any other male friends and am closer to my female friends and especially my lesbian friends.

The only long standing male friend I have (more than 15 years) is gay. Other than that I have had male acquaintances in work situations that I get on well with, have a laugh etc. but I don't see them as friends.
When I was younger I had a big group of male and female friends, however inevitably, when I ended my long term relationship many of the guys I thought were my friends came on to me, which ruined it. It was quite upsetting to know that I saw it as friendship, but they were just waiting in the wings.

Yep, my best friend is a man. We are extremely close and I would do anything for him.
We have both had some degree of feelings for each other at different points and I guess our friendship is unusually close. It’s definitely not straightforward. I wouldn’t change it, or him, for the world though.

The thing is, I'm bisexual so does that mean all of my friendships are a threat to my marriage??

Yes I have close friends both male and female. And I don't fancy any of them!!