One notices with great interest at how men and women attempt to lie to each other that there is actually the existence of platonic friendship between them. A platonic friendship means a relationship of the mind or spirit, without the element of sexual thought or desire, between the parties. You often hear nonsensical statements like, "Oh she is just a friend," "I treat you like my best friend," or "He is just like a brother to me."

The upshot of it all is that everyone, especially in conservative Asia, is unwilling to admit that in every male-female relationship, there is bound to be an imbalance of feelings on either, or both, sides. A pure, close, non-sexual, non-attractive friendship between men and women is impossible. Every male-female relationship either works out to marriage or mating, or to dissolution. The reasons are:

1. The Animalistic Need to Find a Mating Partner

It is the decree of nature that every living thing has the necessity to procreate. This is of a compulsive instinct rooted in the life cycle and independent of all motives and intentions. The significance of needing a mating partner commensurates with the necessity of staking territorial claims over the other, in most cases, the female species. The male usually sticks the flag of conquest upon the lands of the female because of the relative social and physical weakness of the latter species, and marriage is but a primitive ritual designed to publicise the male's ownership of the other.

This mating compulsion is exclusionary of the other males or females who are not party to the relationship, thereby precluding the existence of any form of platonic friendship between one party within the relationship with another party outside of that relationship. One example would make it clear, do you see wives or husbands still chatting with their opposite-sex-best-friends after marriage through the wee hours of the night like they used to do when they were young?

2. Fundamental Personality Differences

The deeply-rooted differences between the male and female personality disqualifies them for any close platonic, lustless relationship. The male species is generally stronger, egoistical, pragmatic, more physical and insensitive while the female is primarily weaker emotionally, less egoistical, more idealistic and hopeful, less physical and more sensitive. They can only end up with nothing or as mating partners in the end -- any semblance of a "friendship" is but illusory and transitory to either of the two conclusions.

3. The Intervention of Lust

It is a well-known fact that men are lustful creatures, always driven strongly by sexual desires, and finding expression and release by ogling at women, mentally imagining them on bed with them, or mentally undressing them, or privately fantasizing about the woman of their dreams with tools and aids. This is of course nothing immoral nor frightful nor perverse, for nature has so evolved in such a way as to place the onus of procreative initiation upon the physically more aggressive species in order to achieve maximum fertilization efficiency.

And the reasons why men and women refuse to admit the truth:

1. Basic Embarassment

It is clear that no one in a stable male-female "friendship" at present would admit to the other that, "Hey actually I like you and I sexually gratify myself secretly at night by imagining you beside me," either for the genuine reason to preserve the existing status quo, as humans are fearful of change and seek equilibrium, or for the reason that there is no reason to tell the truth about such privately embarassing things.

2. Uncertainty or Fear of Commitment and Relationship

Girls or guys who feel the inevitable emotional imbalance by liking the other supposed "friend" rarely admit that there is in fact no platonic friendship because they fear what they might be getting into. Everyone naturally fears commitment for the risk that it brings -- an unsettled heart fears that getting into this relationship will entail the opportunity costs of looking for other mates, and a settled heart always fears the danger of hurt that may occur later in a relationship. As such, these factors push the parties already within a stable supposed "friendship" closer to the illusion of the friendship because of emotional inertia -- the fear of trying and change.

3. The Need Not to Scare Away the Prey

This occurs only for the more cunning and far-seeing side of the supposed "friendship", who see that the time is not opportune for a strike at the heart of the other one, and therefore buys time by appearing as a "I'm only your friend" to the targetted one, until the harvest is ripe enough to be reaped. This tactial maneuver is in itself a reason for some non-admittances of the fact that there is no platonism.

In conclusion, there are only two possible endings between a guy and a girl -- they either end up as mating partners, that is, within the social convention framework of a marriage or illegitimate cohabitation, or no contact at all. Any supposed "friendship" that looks like a friendship is not friendship, but a probationary stage for the parties to evaluate the mating potential, and utilitarian happiness, of the other.