Why can't a woman and a man be close without people thinking they are in a relationship?

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

It's one of the things that irritate me the most. I work closely with a woman, we go out to lunch, carpool once, and for some people this means we are in a relationship. This is a mentality straight out 1800.

To the guy that made the joke, I just said that it's not true, and even if we were having something, I still didn't see how it could be his business. That shut him up.

[Ευδεμονια]

It’s difficult because intersex friendship is seen as something very uncommon and unlikely by bigoted people. Bigoted and provincial people think there can be only sentiment between man and woman and they can’t be friends, on contrary, if a man sees a woman is absolutely only to have sex. It’s very common thinking like that here, and sincerely I don’t suffer it.
I think honestly having friend girls for a man and having friend guys for a woman is something very valuable since they can give another perspective to our vision and opinions, it’s a pure enrichment.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

Excellent answer, my friend.

[DryGermanGuy]

Which country do you live in? I have read that it's worse in Islamic countries, because they carry the legacy of One Thousand and One Nights and people there tend to have a fertile imagination. For example foreign footballers in Turkey are advised never to get photographed standing next to a woman other than their wife, because the yellow press will start rumors about an affair.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

It's a little European country, more advanced in certain regions and kind of backwards in others. In the backwards regions it's often advised for married men to never be seen publicly with a woman that's not their wife or their mother.

[MountAverage]

People who think like that are emotionally immature and/or have extreme insecurities. The majority of men on GaG are like that.
It's projection. They're incapable of seeing people of the opposite sex as anything but potential sex partners, therefore they assume it must be the same for everyone else.

[Guy13]

Always that way

[boobliker]

they can if sex is never offered ,