Intergender Friendships: good or bad?

How about those strange Heterosexuals who prefer the company of the opposite sex despite its obvious effeminating effect on males and the way it makes women butch? Can any good come of allowing such mixed company in anything more than small doses? And how can we possibly respect the gentleman who doesn't want to retire to the vigorous company of other men to smoke cigars, drink whisky and share hunting stories?

* Pshaw *

But hey, if we go so far as to treat females like honorary human beings, we might very well be tempted to think of children as such.

I can't say as I have had many younger friends. But I'm inclined to treat them all like human beings while also keeping in mind the psychopathology of other people in their lives.

Though, quite frankly, most people who live 24/7 with control freaks end up ( at least for the duration ) as damaged goods.

If your younger friends are healthy, smart, curious and otherwise unsmothered, then in all likelihood their success is a reflection of having human parents rather than territorial animals who mark their progeny with urine.

But hey, the same applies to one's adult friends.

One never knows whether another adult had been browbeaten by a spouse or other relative who will view your friendship as competition, or will fabricate a sexual component to it.

And yet, if you avoid those who flinch every time their phone rings, generally you're gonna be OK in that regard too.

Dante