why can't we be friends?

From the book I'm speed-reading because it's due back soon and I won't be able to recheck it:

... I think yes, a man and a woman can be good friends. But it isn't easy for them, being as no one else will suppose that that is what they are. (The Children's Book, p486)

I can't quote that without including this


[When Harry Met Sally(Men&WomenCanNotBeFriends)-Part I]*

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't have many friends and none of my close friends are male, Cardo excepted of course. However, I always wondered about this and how heteronormative assertions like this are (of course, I haven't always had the term 'heteronormative' in my vocabulary). Words like this make me think about rules that parents have, forbidding a child to be in a room with a person of the opposite sex if the door is not open. I always wondered, 'Okay, but what if someone of the opposite sex wasn't what one finds sexually appealing?' It seems that we so often just assume that everyone is going to grow up being attracted to someone(s) of the opposite sex.

Anyhow, I've gotten away from that opening quote, which I like. I like that the speaker (Elsie) believes that two people of the opposite sex can be 'just' friends but that she also understands that many others will assume that there is more going on between the two...between the sheets (sorry, I couldn't resist typing that last part).

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* These titles I include are not my own. I am just including the titles given for the videos in case a video doesn't work one day.