Can men and women be "just friends"?

Courtesy of MGM

"Men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way."

This is the famous line said by Billy Crystal's titular character in When Harry Met Sally. His wry explanation always gets a lot of laughs thanks to the late screenwriter, Nora Ephron but the question remains: Can men and women have a platonic relationship?

Harry continues: "No man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her." When Sally asks if a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive, he quips: "No, you pretty much wanna nail them too.

"Because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story."

You might share Sally's shock and disgust, but that seems to be the rule of thumb. In my own life, most of my guy friends have either been gay or cousins (or both). Other than that I have very few close guy friends. There's one buddy I've known for almost five years but we both acknowledged from the get-go that we weren't each other's type. He likes blonds and I'm brunette. I think he has an awful taste in music. 

My girlfriends and I are constantly asking him for guy advice, and vice versa. Once we added him to a Skype call and forgot he was there while talking about hair removal. He made a deal: "You can talk to me about girl stuff but you can't complain if I talk to you like a guy."

The second part of Harry's argument is that men and women can only be friends if they're each involved in a relationship. But even that has its flaws: Their partners will question why they need to have a friend of the opposite sex and whether they're missing something from their relationship.

My friend's boyfriend has become a part of our clique, so we hang out a lot together. But there's always a line. I wouldn't correspond with him in private or hang out with him alone. That would just be downright inappropriate.

This is all from just a girl's point of view, but I'd be interested to get a guy's perspective. Feel free to comment or tweet @doubleyourdosag!

Skip to 1:43 for why men and women can't be friends.

Why men and women can't be friends part 2.