As I look back on the top films of 2008, none show men in close relationships with other men friends.  Picking through the end of the year reviews, the following films are mentioned as contenders for Best film awards:

Did your father have friendships with other men? Did you learn about how to make friends friends from him? We interviewed 386 men for Buddy System: Understanding male friendships and asked them specifically if their fathers had friends and what they learned from their fathers about friendships.  The men we interviewed were diverse in terms of age, face, and religion.

I gave a book talk on Buddy System at Barnes and Noble at the Baltimore Inner Harbor over the weekend.  The question again came up about opposite sex friendships.

Much was made during the 2008 presidential campaign about the on-again, off-again, and now on-again friendship between John McCain and Joseph Biden Jr. McCain frequently sprinkled his remarks with "My friends" as a way to be inclusive. And now, Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's "friend" from Chicago has been picked to be White House chief of staff.

Do Women Have Nonsexual Friendships with Men?

Can men have friendships with women that are nonsexual in nature—the When Harry Met Sally question? Common sense says that platonic friendships are possible. Men often feel more comfortable disclosing intimacies to women than to men because many were raised, particularly at an early age, primarily by mothers and women teachers and because of the way men are socialized to compete with other men.

I delivered a lecture on men's and women's friendships at a conference of social work educators in Philadelphia this weekend. I combined responses from interviews with 386 men and 122 women who are in Buddy System: Understanding male friendships and reported the following:

1. 92% felt same sex friendships were important to them

I can't help feeling, after seeing McCain and Obama trading good-natured barbs at each other and themselves at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner Thursday night, that these guys could actually get along as friends. 

Male friendships in 1882?

Joe Biden talked a great deal about John McCain as his friend during the vice-presidential debate.  Friendships between men are complicated; rivals can square off on the playing field, hit each other hard on tackles, and still be friends.  I am a football fan and enjoy seeing the winners and losers often hug each other after a tightly contested game.  Many of these guys knew each other from