In Harry met Sally, the character Harry, played by Billy Crystal, asserts that men and women can't be friends because the sex thing always come into play.
There's always a lot of debate on this subject and as I get more life experience, the more I can conclude a firm maybe. There are various levels of friendships and there are various forms those friendships can take. So the simple answer is, yes a guy can be just friends with a woman. But there are a lot of qualifiers to that answer.
Qualifier #1: How close of a friend you can be is limited by any romantic relationships you may have. If you're married, it's okay to have girls who are friends whom you work with and see professionally. But don't expect to be having heart to heart talks on the phone at home with them or hanging out all the time.
Qualifier #2: The venues in which your friendship manifests itself is limited by any romantic relationships you have. If you're married, you can certainly have female friends you can go out to lunch with or visit while on a trip. But don't expect to take your female friend (And just your female friend) on a trip to some convnetion.
Qualifier #3: Your own personal discipline will have a great impact on how close a friendship you can have as well as what venues you can express your friendship in. I have had a lot of female friends over the years. This has a lot to do with being raised by a single mother and being an only child. I simply tend to get along better with females as a generalization. But I also have a lot of self-discipline. And being a bit autistic I am able to fall into a pretty rigid pattern to make sure no invisible lines are crossed. Human beings are feeling creatures. There's no way around it. So even if you recognize that deep feelings may exist in some inner resivoir, personal discipline can keep things in line.
Personal discipline can mean being friends with people who also exhibit strong self-discipline. It can mean controlling the venue and putting safeguards on everything. I have a lot of female friends but my wife also knows about all these friendships and I am conscious that some things are appropriate and others aren't. For instance, some of my female friends I get along with so well that if they were a guy, I'd invite them to go to a movie with me and just me. But because they're female, I don't. This is partly out of the self-discipline I was discussing and part for my wife's peace of mind. She trusts me but healthy relationships mean both parties try to avoid doing things they know might cause stress for the other.
On the other hand, when I go to San Francisco or LA or New York or Washington DC on business and I have friends there who are females, I'd think nothing of going out to dinner to catch up on things. Venue and intimacy of friendship are the two competing things.
So that's my rambling un-spellchecked take on the matter. You can be friends with people of the opposite sex but there are limitations on the venues that you can express your friendship in and the level of intimacy you can obtain with that friend that are not as much of an issue when the friend is of the same sex.
What's your take?