Are men better friends to other men than women are to other women?

[snarfsiclex]

I don't think so. Women can be happy for their friends who are also women, but in pop culture, we've seen them always being pitted against each other. Might be one reason for suspecting if female friendships are really genuine, but they're just that, suspicions. Just less competition among men also doesn't mean better friendships. You don't know if these people struggle to forge a deep friendship because they're used to shutting down when there are problems -- I know a lot of men like this.


Don't generalize.

[silibran]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

You don't understand friendships among men, which are indeed very different. Women define friendships by their needs, while men define friendships by shared experience and loyalty.

Who “defines” friendships? I don’t. Women do have friendships that are marked by shared experiences. You think women don’t talk about childbirth? You think we don’t understand when another woman has marital or job troubles?

I spent every Saturday for a year and a half visiting with my friend who was dying. You think we did not share with each other? Do you imagine our “shared experience” as she gradually weakened was not intense and loving?

Honestly, who comes up this sort of stuff?

I simply don’t care to “define” or categorize friendships. If you want to think that men’s way of friendship is innately different and superior, go ahead and think it. But you do not get to categorize how I, or any other woman does friendship.

[WannabeCPA]

Very hard to even say generally speaking if men or women are better friends. First off what defines "better"? Secondly, not a single person on earth can have first hand experience of same sex friendships between both men and women. So everything will be based on what you hear. IMO the nature of friendships of men with other men and women with other women are different, but neither one is better than the other. Then again, since I'm a man I can't possibly know first hand how friendships are between women and vice versa for any woman.