It is not only true that men and women can be close friends without sexual attraction ever surfacing, but it is also true that men and women with strikingly beautiful bodies can be close friends without a hint of sexual attraction. Relationships of this sort are some of the most powerful experiential affirmations of the fact that beauty and sexuality are not synonymous even though they are culturally associated with each other. In turn, they offer onlookers the opportunity to see how sensuality does not have to dominate interactions with the opposite gender.
The perceived physical beauty of either friend does not mean that the other is attracted to them in a sexual way, or that the other has random sexual thoughts about them. This simply does not follow no matter how beautiful the man and woman are. Men and women blessed with attractive bodies may not even be aesthetically attracted to each other at all, but those who are can see that aesthetic attraction is purely platonic in itself. Nothing about it renders men and women unable to relate to each other on an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual level.
Even if there is a deep, mutual aesthetic attraction present, this is not the same as the friends experiencing sexual attraction. A desire to look at and study the other's body does not have to entail sexual feelings. Aesthetic and sexual attraction are quite distinct, and sexual attraction does not spell inevitable doom for opposite gender friendships as it is. After all, personal affection and sexual attraction are not mutually exclusive. It is entirely possible to have distinct sexual feelings for someone of the opposite gender and still deeply care about them as a friend.
Sexual attraction has the potential to be a pleasurable dimension to an opposite gender friendship (even though there are many friendships between men and women in which it is not present), as sexual feelings can motivate flirtatious words and touches, which can themselves be pleasurable even when there is no intent from either party to enter a romantic or sexual relationship. Strictly platonic affection between men and women is not inherently less powerful and pleasurable than sexual attraction, but each kind of attraction offers its own kind of pleasure.
Men and women are capable of being friends regardless of which of the two kinds of excitement they feel. Even the most attractive men and women can embrace friendship with each other, whether they feel platonic or sexual attraction. There is far more to any individual person than physical beauty or sex appeal, no matter how much of either they possess. The most beautiful people can still be personally loved by members of the opposite gender whether or not the latter harbors sexual feelings for them.
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