“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my FRIEND” (Camus, n.d). This quote clearly and very significantly shows the value associated to the word Friend or Friendship. To put it across in simpler words, Friends are people who are tied together by a bond of friendship and hence care for each other. Friendship has been part of our lives since human beings came into existence but it has slowly, gradually evolved over the time and has become much more classified and complex. Today friendship forms a complex relationship for us with many dimensions. Friends and friendship often hold different meanings for males and females and further, for a woman, there is an ample difference between male and female friends.
A woman prefers a male friend to a female friend when it comes to taking advice or solutions to an issue. According to a woman, a man thinks much more practically and has a completely different view on the issue (the opposite sex view) as compared to female friends who tend to be less practical and more emotional. For example, in case of an argument or breakup with her partner, a male friend would help the woman understand the state of mind of her partner in a better manner than a female friend would ever do. Moreover, the solutions to an issue by a male friend seem fresh and different since they involve a male’s point of view which she herself or any of her female friends are incapable of thinking, due to natural reasons.
For a woman, women friends mean competition while male friends hardly generate any such feeling. Amongst her female friends, a woman would compete over every small issue right from her looks to hairstyle and her grades in a class exam to boyfriends. A Woman often considers her female friends to be jealous of her, not just because they really are jealous of her but because she also feels equally jealous of them and hence this assumption creeps in. Male friends for a woman do not imbibe this feeling of jealousy but often are a source of inspiration. For example: Girls would often gossip about other girls backbiting and in the process would themselves indulge in backbiting!! Men, on the other hand, often inspire women to share quality stuff with them by indulging them in interactions less emotionally challenging (Renata, 2013)
For a woman, a female friend means someone who is emotionally very close to her and one with whom she can share her deepest feelings and extend in one-on-one communication more often (Alee, 2011). A male friend on the other hand, for a woman, couldn’t get that close to her without breaching the limits of friendship. Friendship is the first towards love, the saying holds special significance for a woman and she would never let a male friend of hers to be too close to her until and unless she feels differently for him. For example: In today’s time, when a very fine line separates friendship and love between opposite sexes, males tend to feel more than just friends for their female counterparts who seek emotional support for them which leads to end of friendship either in a positive or negative manner. Moreover, a female friend is someone whom a woman would look towards for emotional support since boys or males with conventionally low emotional quotient often prove an inadequate support.
Women today have friends from both the sexes without any hesitation and hence they weigh their options well. While for them, female friends mean intimacy, closeness and support; male friends, for them, stand for guidance, inspiration and a more practical and viable approach. Having said that, value of any of these friendships cannot be and should not be undermined. Though conventionally well-debated, male-female friendship does exist today and is sustained due to mutual understanding by both the sides to keep their relationship just to friendship, on the other hand, female-female friendship is far more common and intense since it doesn’t involve the inherent risk involved in male-female friendships. For a woman today, both these friendships hold importance in their own respective ways and she does understand the potential advantages and disadvantages of both.
Works Cited
Alee. ”Male Friendship vs. Female Friendship.”
Wordpress. 13 February 2013. Web. 2011
< http://aloftyexistence.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/male-friendship-vs-female-friendship/>
Camus, Albert. ”Quotes About Friendship.”
Good Reads. 13 February 2013. Web. n.d
< http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/friendship >
Renata, Rebeca. ”Difference between Male Friendships and Female Friendships.”
Ehow. 13 February 2013. Web. 2013
< http://www.ehow.com/list_7391112_differences-male-friendships-female-friendships.html>
