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This is something I have wrestled with for the past several years.
When I was young (like teens and very early twenties), I thought, "Sure, why can't you just be friends with the opposite sex?" During my third year of college, in a social psychology class, this came up in class discussion. The professor cited a study (don't have info on it so it'll just have to be anecdotal) where several straight men were interviewed about female friends. According to her, the men said that they would enjoy having female friends, but at the same time, in the backs of their minds they were usually wondering if it would turn into something more serious.
I can echo that sentiment. I've had female friends throughout my life, and yes, I enjoyed talking to them and having them as friends. But with most of them, I'll admit to entertaining notions in the back of my mind of whether it would turn into something more. Now, that shouldn't be read as me constantly wanting to rip off their clothes and ravage them. It's just that, on a subliminal level, I couldn't help but wonder if it would go farther.
If you like having opposite sex friends, then I think you should be mindful that many straight people have a hard time maintaining mere friendships with the opposite sex. They may get along well with them, but at the same time, they can't help but entertain other thoughts and likely get their hopes up, too. If you are befriending a straight member of the opposite sex, you could potentially get them to thinking that you're romantically interested, and when it comes out that you're not, that person could feel like he or she has been "led on" or "played with."
Maybe it's just me, and I know my experience doesn't always reflect reality, but it seems that women tend to enjoy opposite sex friendships a little more than men do. Many of them seem to like having a "male girlfriend" to hang out with. Of course, the guy often thinks that this budding friendship is a warm-up to a relationship, and sometimes it is, though often it isn't. Again, I'm not saying that this is reality, and I'm not saying it's necessarily bad, I'm just saying that this is what it seems like to me.
When I was young (like teens and very early twenties), I thought, "Sure, why can't you just be friends with the opposite sex?" During my third year of college, in a social psychology class, this came up in class discussion. The professor cited a study (don't have info on it so it'll just have to be anecdotal) where several straight men were interviewed about female friends. According to her, the men said that they would enjoy having female friends, but at the same time, in the backs of their minds they were usually wondering if it would turn into something more serious.
I can echo that sentiment. I've had female friends throughout my life, and yes, I enjoyed talking to them and having them as friends. But with most of them, I'll admit to entertaining notions in the back of my mind of whether it would turn into something more. Now, that shouldn't be read as me constantly wanting to rip off their clothes and ravage them. It's just that, on a subliminal level, I couldn't help but wonder if it would go farther.
If you like having opposite sex friends, then I think you should be mindful that many straight people have a hard time maintaining mere friendships with the opposite sex. They may get along well with them, but at the same time, they can't help but entertain other thoughts and likely get their hopes up, too. If you are befriending a straight member of the opposite sex, you could potentially get them to thinking that you're romantically interested, and when it comes out that you're not, that person could feel like he or she has been "led on" or "played with."
Maybe it's just me, and I know my experience doesn't always reflect reality, but it seems that women tend to enjoy opposite sex friendships a little more than men do. Many of them seem to like having a "male girlfriend" to hang out with. Of course, the guy often thinks that this budding friendship is a warm-up to a relationship, and sometimes it is, though often it isn't. Again, I'm not saying that this is reality, and I'm not saying it's necessarily bad, I'm just saying that this is what it seems like to me.
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