Vanessa Marin discusses the fraught topic of being friends with people one could be attracted to. She emphasizes there are no universal rules and that each couple should set their own boundaries, noting discomfort at rigid rules forbidding friendships with women and framing such friendships as potentially healthy indicators of emotional capacity and connection.
Chapters
Friendships with people that you could potentially be attracted to. It's obviously such a landmine of a topic. And I think it's something that there are no hard and fast rules about in general. I think it's something that every couple needs to decide for themselves. I feel really uncomfortable in our relationship making a rule that you're not allowed to be friends with women. And I think that actually, you being friends with women is a good sign, like, that you can have friendships, that you can have that kind of emotional connection, that you can have other women in your life. I think that's a really good thing. I hate that. I think most people would say, I don't want my partner. I wouldn't want my husband being friends with other women. I think most people would say that, and I think that's really a bummer.