A Note on Male/Female Friendships

Currently in Earphones: King Kong soundtrack by James Newton Howard

After reading the humorous and truthful article on maintaining Platonic relationships between male and female, found here, I came up with an additional observation, that kinda fits in with No. 10, but probably is in it's own catagory all together.

Males, by their nature, are competetive beings. In the reptilian portion of our brain, we know that it all narrows down to who is the biggest and best of us, because those guys (on a primal level) will be gettin' all the chicks, as it were.

Although we now have far more complex and varied criteria for instinctive mate selection, there's still some of that basic thinking underlying the whole thing.

Now, when it comes to inter-sexual friendship, we've also advanced, or at least I can say as much for the male portion. We guys can be friends with you ladies because we enjoy your company, and on some level or another, know that if we were to get serious things probably wouldn't work out. But, additionally we still have this idea that we're potential boyfriend material. Let's face it, we're friends because at some point or another we were hoping to be more than friends with you.

Again, guys are all different and depending on who he is, he could have that all behind him, or still be wishing for a lucky break, or what have you. No matter what, there will still be that grain in him, active or dormant, that wonders on such things.

With that in mind, we don't mind a whole heck of a lot when you start talking to us about your boyfriends/potentials/etc. because we want you to be happy. We're friends, also, because we care about you, and as No. 14 says in the article, we "fucking adore you."

However, do know that when you do talk to us of such things, you will always be triggering the primal spot that gets our competition going. Since we're friends with you, we won't let it get us down, but every time you mention how charming/cool/ripped/amazing another guy is to you, a little bit of us shouts out "What, and I'm not?"

Don't take it personally, because it's nothing against you, but our instinctual logic places us below the guy you're gushing about on the "fitness" ladder, and we start to wonder why it is that you're wasting your time with us, when this obviously superior guy is out there.

We know that you are friends with us for a reason, that we have redeeming qualities and that you like us all the same, but just know that our brains go off on that tangent if you start talking about the other guys. Once again, this is only the case in varying degrees, depending on the guy and the friendship, but I think it holds true in most cases.

As No. 10 says, "I am not your girl friend; I am your [...] man friend who officially hates all men that you date now or in the future."

Enough, More Later.
- James