Plato in Sex and the City

Harry Burns: You realize of course that we could never be friends.
Sally Albright: Why not?
Harry Burns: What I'm saying is - and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form - is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally Albright: That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry Burns: No you don't.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: No you don't.
Sally Albright: Yes I do.
Harry Burns: You only think you do.
Sally Albright: You say I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry Burns: No, what I'm saying is they all WANT to have sex with you.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: They do not.
Harry Burns: Do too.
Sally Albright: How do you know?
Harry Burns: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally Albright: So, you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry Burns: No. You pretty much want to nail 'em too.
Sally Albright: What if THEY don't want to have sex with YOU?
Harry Burns: Doesn't matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
Sally Albright: Well, I guess we're not going to be friends then.
Harry Burns: I guess not.
Sally Albright: That's too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York.

When Harry Met Sally

Philosophical question that has been plaguing me for some time: is there such a thing as a platonic relationship between a man and a woman? My initial and immediate answer was, yeah of course, what a question! But I'm starting to wonder now. I have to admit that most of the time I tend to be quite innocent and not see the motives behind people's actions. So far, I can say I have 2 cases proving the phenomenon and around 6 cases disproving it. So does that mean that in those 2 cases I just didn't look far enough to see what was actually there? Is it just my wishful thinking? Are those guys just better able to hide their feelings? Maybe it's a mix of both. But life doesn't always have to boil down to sex. Why is it that you should always want more? I mean isn't the difference between friendship and a relationship just sexual attraction? Ok maybe that's a somewhat simplistic way to put it since when you date someone, you should preferably choose someone that you could stand seeing everyday (if seeing the person two or three days in a row makes you want to run away and hide, then there's a problem...at least that's the milestone I set for myself). But sex still plays a big part in this. And I simply cannot bring myself to believe that every man on this planet could potentially be attracted to every woman on the planet in such a way to avoid a friendship. And the whole "a man would sleep even with a woman that he finds unattractive", I don't really buy it. Unless you're desperate, you still have some filters.

So then what is the problem? Why is it that women can be just friends with men, but that doesn't work the other way around (except in my two exceptions to the rule and thank god for them...and actually you can say that they apply to the rule or not depending on how you look at it, but anyway). I've heard the you're-so-amazing-that-I-don't-want-to-be-just-your-friend tag line and, seriously, that really doesn't cut it. If my personality is so amazing (pfff yeah right!) then let's hang out more often, but that's not an excuse for not wanting my friendship. Blah, in the end, I think I'd rather just keep my innocent outlook of life and that way I'll have an excuse to ignore this inconsistency in perceptions.