An Observation About Cross-Gender Friendship

The fact that many may people believe an idea does not validate the idea in question.  In fact, in some cultures and times, the popularity of an idea may be further reason to doubt the premise.  One of the many false and stupid ideas I have mentioned on my blog, and one which enjoys popularity in my society and time, is the notion that a boy and a girl over a certain age who are not siblings cannot be close friends, much less intimate lifelong ones, without one or both developing romantic or sexual feelings for the other.  This can lead to people who are engaged or married or who just have a "significant other" harboring jealousy over such friendships, ending relationships over them, and always fretting that a partner will be seduced away by some man or woman.

Now, I've already proven that this belief is bullshit, so I want to approach this subject from a slightly different angle.

If 99% of the world's population claimed that non-romantic and non-sexual deep friendships between men and women are impossible or extremely unlikely because that 99% had all experienced difficulty in having such relationships, that proves nothing except that the vast majority of people are unable to enjoy such friendships; it does not prove that intimate non-sexual and non-romantic cross-gender friendships are impossible.

However, even a single friendship between a male and a female that is not sexualized proves that the 99% are incorrect when they make their claim.  No matter what everyone else might tell them, the two know with absolute certainty (due to logic) that there is no inherent link between such friendships and sexuality and (due to experience) that they are in a relationship that does not involve sex or romance whatsoever.

Remember that the majority can never dictate what is true, but can only discover it--if the majority is willing to critically and rationally assess reality.  This applies to ideas besides the one addressed here.  So if you happen to suspect that cross-gender friendships are only possible between siblings, catch yourself the next time you find yourself seeing a boy and a girl or a man and a woman and judging them to be a couple of some kind.  That means don't assume that people are dating or married just because they hang out a lot!  Eliminating the comments and attitudes that people often display towards these public appearances of cross-gender friendships will hopefully alleviate and then annihilate the pitifully fallacious and false idea that men and women cannot or should not be loving but "platonic" friends.