Expert Reveals Why Male And Female Friendships Are So Rare

Growing older makes friendships harder

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Although keeping friendships is easy when you are young, it can become much harder as people get older. The older people get, the more differences they have, making friendships hard to maintain. This is especially apparent in men's and women's friendships, for sure.

Men do not go out looking for female friends

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Realistically, a female friend is not something a man is looking for in life. A man is stereotypically more likely to look for a romantic interest in a friend. This is hard to stop happening in any friendship they create with a woman due to the need they have.

Women are more emotionally available

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It goes without saying that a woman is a lot more likely to be emotionally available than a man. With this being said, if a woman is more emotional, they may find it hard to connect with someone who is the opposite. This creates issues between men and women.

Their views can clash

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Men and women both have strong views on many different topics, and as much as these can align at times, there is a greater chance that they do not. For example, the feminist argument is something many men cannot get behind, and this would create flaws within an opposite sex friendship.

Men bond better with other men

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Men grow up from a young age hanging out with other men, and this is something they learn how to do at a young age. Many men may not have ever had a female friend, and this therefore creates an unknown feeling for them, something that is hard to combat.

There’s always someone who has greater feelings

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As much as one party to the friendship may believe that being friends with the opposite sex is great, this isn't always the case for the other. In many cases, one person will have greater feelings than just friendship, which creates a flaw in a long term friendship.

Sexual attraction

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Further to the last point, men and women are both naturally attracted to each other, and this creates an issue if you are looking for a friendship. These feelings can be hard to stop and will naturally happen in a friendship. There's really no way to stop these feelings from happening at all.

Men find it hard to give the right advice

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Women love to speak to their girl friends to get advice on life issues they may be facing. When they try to do this with a man, they can be stopped by opposing views and different approaches. So next time you're looking for advice, hit up the girls group.

Women need to express emotions more

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Men naturally have a good way of hiding their emotions, which is why they may not be so used to talking about their issues at all. Women, on the other hand, need to speak out about their issues and talk them out. Men are not so used to this, and this creates a clash in the friendship.

It causes friction with other romantic partners involved

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A man and woman friendship might work really well in the right setting when they are both single. However, as soon as one party gets into a relationship, the issues start to show. Another person being in the mix can really cause some tension that can't be stopped.

They don’t enjoy doing the same things

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Many men have hobbies that a lot of women just don't enjoy! With this, it can be hard to keep a friendship when there's no common ground for activities to do. Women usually want to be out and doing things, which isn't always something a man would want to do.

Men catch feelings quicker than women

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Scientifically, men catch feelings for women quicker than women do. This means that at the start of their friendship, the man could have bigger feelings for the woman than her. This creates a lot of issues in the friendship and takes them off the same path.

Their bodies are different

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It's no surprise that a man's body is very different from a woman's. This creates issues with how they relate to each other and speak about their problems. There's no way of getting advice from each other in these scenarios because they have nothing in common.

They don’t interact as much at an early age

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In the early years of life, many friendships start with a group of boys or girls. In this situation, there isn't a lot of room for opposite sex friendships to spark. This does mean that the chances of these forming later in life are less likely to happen.

Most people are looking for romantic connection with the opposite sex

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You may be someone who would really enjoy a friendship with the opposite sex. However, this isn't something a lot of people are looking for. So if a man is friend zoned in a friendship, the chances are they will move on to find a new romantic partner instead.

Interests are not the same

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Interests are something on which a friendship is built, and if these aren't the same, it can be hard to have a lasting friendship. It is more common that women and men will have different interests in what they enjoy doing. Another reason why a same sex friendship is hard to keep.

Loyalty can be an issue

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It can be argued that different levels of loyalty can be found in different people. However, men and women hold different levels of loyalty in their friendships, which makes it hard for them to be on the same page. It's good to talk about this in the early stages.

It’s hard to give advice in areas like fashion

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Most men and women do not dress the same, which makes it very hard to have the same dress sense. It also makes it pretty difficult to give each-other advice on what looks best on them. If you don't wear the same clothes, there can be many issues with that.

Someone will get jealous of other people

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At the start of a male and female friendship, it can be really nice, but this doesn't always last when one gets jealous. This is usually because the other person sees them as more than friends, but there can be a lot of issues when multiple people are in the other person's life.

Society does not bring people up that way

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In society, we are told at a young age who to be friends with and who to be romantically involved with. This is why many opposite sex friendships will be questioned a lot about their intentions with each other. This is a big one to be aware of and can cause issues.

There’s no mutual ground

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Men and women are so vastly different from each other that they really have no common ground. Having a mutual ground allows a connection to be created and built. However, without that, there's really nothing to build a friendship with and make it last.

A man can make a woman feel less confident

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A woman being friends with a man can make it hard for her confidence to shine through. This is because men are not as good as women at building someone up and giving compliments. This leaves the woman feeling empty of something in the friendship, which is an issue.

Their brains work differently

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It's scientifically proven that men's and women's brains are a lot different from each other. This does mean that the way they work within the friendship is different and can cause clashes. These clashes can be hard to get past because they are simply the way the brain works.

It can stop them meeting someone romantically

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When there is a big connection between a man and a woman, this can close them off from finding someone romantically. This is because other people may see that they are together. It can also be because they become comfortable with the person they are friends with.

Men and women process issues differently

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Men and women processing issues differently does cause a high amount of issues regarding the way that they communicate together. This can be from the perspective of how they give advice or how they work around issues within the friendship. Both of these leave the friendship lacking something.

It’s hard to make up after a fight

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Following on from the last point, if there are issues with the way in which both genders process things, then resolving a fight is hard work. Because of this, it does mean that a friendship would be hard to keep as a long lasting connection when there is any type of fight.

There’s no girl or boy code

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Many people live by 'girl code' or 'boy code' and this is the respect that they have for each other. There just isn't anything to go off in a friendship between a man and woman in terms of codes. This makes it hard to know boundaries if they have not been set.

They can stop being friends easily when one party is not single

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Having a friend of the opposite gender can be really easy when both parties are single. However, it happens a lot that when one of the people in the friendship finds a partner, this type of friendship can stop. This is because of the similarities in the friendship.

People don’t understand the friendship

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It's not common at all to have a friendship with the opposite gender, and this can cause issues in itself. Many people will assume the friendship is more than it is, and this can become quite annoying. It can also put pressure on the friendship that they have.

Testosterone differences

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Testosterone levels in men and women are very different, and this creates a big difference in their personalities. Because of this, it can be hard to keep a friendship due to the many differences they have. Women may feel overpowered by a male friend.