This is an old oft-debated topic, but let me quote a rhetorical
question from another article to make things clearer:
"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?"
If there are such wives or husbands, they are the exception (with
either extremely accommodating or cheating spouses doing the same
thing), rather than the rule. Sadly for most, platonic friendships
could exist, but only up till marriage with another party, after
which it simply fades away or is reduced to mere "Hi! How are you?
Take care. Bye!" acquaintanceship.
Many women believe or want to believe that platonic friendships
with male friends can exist;
many men don't but encourage that belief in women anyway so that
they could stand a chance, up to the point when the women in
question marry someone else and are no longer within their
reach.
So could there then truly be platonic friendship?
