In recent months, we’ve had a couple top-notch essays about both the power and addictiveness of friendship. This weekend, at The New York Times,William Deresiewicz took up the topic, focusing on friendship “between the sexes.” Deresiewicz touches on the “surprisingly political” history of male-female friendship, how ideas about narrative influence what relationships are represented in media, and cultural attitudes toward love not “based on sex or blood.”
“We have trouble with mentorship, the asymmetric love of master and apprentice, professor and student, guide and guided; we have trouble with comradeship, the bond that comes from shared, intense work; and we have trouble with friendship, at least of the intimate kind. When we imagine those relationships, we seem to have to sexualize them. ”
