How do you feel about guys and girls being "just friends"?

It's called "being a grown up".
You obviously have a very intellegent fiance who understands the meaning of "friend". If it ever gets to the point you would rather spend time with your friends than your SO, the gender of your friends isn't the problem.

I have a lot of male friends. I don't have many female friends. I find that, while I enjoy the company and banter with my male friends, sometimes I miss having a really good female friend around on a regular basis. I think that men and women can be friends without it progressing to sex, or without the two people constantly obsessing over one another.

In my case women will never be more than friends to me. Friendship works perfectly fine regardless of gender. Isn't it odd that men can sometimes be friends without it either leading immediately to sex?

I don't see a problem. some of my best friends are women. a couple I became friends with because I was attracted to them, some I became friends with just because. I only progressed to dating one, and that was a mistake, but I won't go into that. The ones I was attracted to, only one ever said anything about a relationship and stated flat out that she wasn't interested. We are still good friends, and she married another friend of mine almost 2 years ago (wow... time flies). The others, they were usually either dating or just out of relationships, and my friendship was more important to me (and maybe to them) so (being the chicken that I am) I never said anything, and we remain good friends. so yeah, men and women can be friends, they can be close friends. the thing that messes it up is the assumption that other people may have that you are obviously dating or that there has to be sex involved. another problem is the tension that can occur by being friends with anyone you are attracted to. you can ignore it, and simply continue the friendship.
oh, and you can keep the penny, I have a drawerful, I hate the things.

Men and women can be friends. With no progression to a sexual nature in the relationship. Of course most guys will still check her out every time they see her. We are of course pigs.

oink oink

In my experiance, I have almost always been in relationships that ended and became great (or at least good) friendships. However, in a couple of cases, I am good friends with women I was never involved with. I think that opposite-sex friendships are different than same-sex friendships, though one isn't better than the other...

yes, males and females can be friends. Even if they're both heterosexual. One of my best friends is a (straight) guy.

I have always had great male friends, some married, some single, some gay. I enjoy talking to men & find their conversations very interesting. My gay male friends are extremely witty & creative & so much fun. My straight male friends give me that 'male' perspective & also help make me realize that my husband is one great guy.

IMHO, you should go find these "people" who have been filling your head with silly nonsense, and knock them upside the head! Being gay, I haven't had much trouble with friends of the opposite sex. However, I have found that I can have friends of the same sex, even ones to whom I am attracted (though the latter can be difficult, especially if the attraction is strong), without progressing further.

I have a very close male friend. Sometimes I feel like I'm, well, not exactly cheating on my boyfriend, but a little closer than I should be to the other guy. I think there's a chance that if when we met neither of us had been "attached" we'd have dated, but I don't know how it would have worked out. I think we're too much the same in certain areas and too different in others. There was a point when I thought I wanted to be "dating" him, but... all in all, I think both of us are glad that it's worked out like it has.
** Reality has a good point... the main problem is that so many people seem to think we're a "couple" which can make some things rather awkward.

I have both male and female friends who I'm close to. I enjoy having friends with different personalities and perspectives. My life would be too bland if I only had friends of one gender.

thanks for the advice guys. Definately changed my frame of mind. And I apologize for my answers not being all inclusive....I didn't even think about sexual orientation in this case!!!

I have male and female friends, and I don't get along better with either, although there are differences. I have friends I'm physically attracted to and friends I'm not, and I don't get along better with either, although there are differences.
Also, I suspect you're assuming that males are exclusively attracted to females and vice-versa, which isn't especially true of this group.
Keep that in mind when interpreting your stats.

My best friend is male, but he's gay, so the sexual element rarely enters into that relationship. Many of my close friends are male, although the women in my life are slowly increasing in percentage. I find the competition aspect of female friendships more difficult to handle than the sexual aspect of male friendships. I've had sex with some of my male friends, not with others. Some of my male friends I find attractive, but would never have sex with, for various reasons. I sometimes say that men and women can't be friends unless the sex question is settled. It can be settled in a lot of ways...by having sex, by both agreeing that sex is not an option, mainly by being honest and comfortable with each other. I think that relationships are tricky and individual and trying to determine rules for them is misleading. If you enjoy your time with your male friends, then I don't think you need to feel guilty about that. If you are doing things with these friends that you would feel uncomfortable telling your fiance about, then maybe this is a problem. If you enjoyed spending time with young children, I would not necessarily think you were a pedophile. Friendship is a precious thing, don't throw it away because of societal stereotypes.

Who says that people of opposite sex can't be friends? These people you are relying on for information are very confused :) I don't know anyone that has ever said anything like that. I have many male friends. It's not a big deal. Many guys I know have many female friends. It's not a big deal. I don't think I know anyone over the age of 14 who has that "opposite sex friendships don't work" philosophy.

of course they can be friends. if there is something missing (and r`egret over it missing) in the other relationship, it will lead t random attractions and a feeling of guilt

My best friend is my wife. That said, my second-best friend is another woman I worked with for seven years. We even all lived together for a time. Yes, I'm attracted to her, and if I weren't already involved, it would have progressed. But now she's involved with my third-best friend, and things are good.

I'm glad I came across this survey, because a male friend and I just had a really big fight, and my female friends and I were discussing same sex friendships vs. opp. sex friendships. Hopefully this will change for me as I get older, but it seems like all the guys in my social circle don't really treat their friends the same way the girls do. The reason for my falling out with this person is because he always stood me up after we made plans. I asked him to call if he wasn't going to be able to make it, and he acted like this was some big deal. From talking with others in my group of friends, this has happened many times, and the guys never think it's a problem. They always say that since they're not 'going out' with a person, they don't have to keep plans if something else comes up. The female perspective is that friends are friends are friends, and that plans made are plans kept, unless it's impossible, and then it's normal to let the other party know of the change. It makes me really mad because I would love to be friends with more guys and not have to worry about this 'whatever happens happens' attitude. Sorry, this is rambling, and probably doesn't make much sense.

pandora, I've had a couple of friends with similar habits and I've found a couple of ways of dealing with it. One of my friends, I will not meet anywhere but my own house, because then at least I can do whatever I want while he's three hours late. Another friend, we make plans and if nothing better comes up, I call about an hour before we're going to get together and say "Are we on? Are you coming?" Please note, I'm not apologizing for these people...I agree that it is extremely disrespectful, but sometimes the friendship is worth working around the other person's character flaws.

I do think that men and women are raised to have quite different friendship styles. Individuals may be more or less stereotypical, of course. That doesn't mean that individuals cannot forge a relationship that meets both of their needs.

Male friends for males- good. Male friends for females- good. Female friends for females- not always so good. Women can be so mean to each other.