Mr Rock has an opinion on this.

Warning - NSFW, strong language etc..

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Well, this is a big subject but here are my thoughts:

The answer doesn't lie with the women, but the men. We need to grow a pair and let go of our fears.

Experience has told me that if you behave like a friend in the first instance towards a woman, she will immediately put you into that frame. So if there is no sexual tension created from the beginning, you're labelled as a friend.

On the other hand, act like a man from the start, telegraph your interest in a genuine and direct way and make it clear that you're not interested in just being friends, and things turn out very differently.

It's a shame we as boys are brought up to believe that if you send a girl flowers and be 'nice' to her she'll fall for you. It couldn't be further from the truth.

Female Freinds are good fun to have, however for a guy, especially if hes looking for a girlfriend, he will think potential girlfriends will be put off by the presence of other Female friends. I think the Majority of single guys are looking for girlfriends, and if she starts out as a friend and turns into a really good friend then he sees the potential. Being a friend in a relationship is very important imho, and wanting more is a natural instinct. 

If you spend all your time with someone who is a friend, the relationship deepens. I think it becomes an issue as you say when one wants more than is on offer. 

The key here is communication, being open with your feelings and what you want from a particular relationship. 

The Majority of my friends are female, and I love the time spent with them, and yet i dont have a girlfriend. When i do meet someone who could be the prospective girlfriend I often hear it said, Oh but you have so many girlfriends already ... 

You not only have an issue with the perspective of other people, but also your own perspectives. Again being open and honest from the start is the key here. I always make it clear how I feel about someone, and if its a straight no, then I make a choice , do i want this person in my life as they are, a friend, or should i let it be, and move on.

If I like someone , and i feel good around them, then i want them in my life. 

sooo the search continues ;) 

Interesting article in a similar vein

http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/why-men-arent-really-men-anymore/

@Alan:

"Why so whiny? This was the first thought than went though my head after reading the article. Reminded me of all those guys complaining how they got „friend-zoned“.

That's exactly what the author is trying to do here ;)

"Your suggestion to undermine your friends self-esteem is almost sociopathic. And you dare to call men „manipulative, game-playing, two-faced bastards“? Wow, what chutzpah! To be honest, whoever you are, I hope I’ll never meet you."

I think this is a reference to when men say "So what? Do I need to behave like a bastard in order to get a girlfriend?". Anyway, I doubt she was being serious :) If she was then yes, it's scary, you're right to want to stay away from such a person.

@Karl: Thanks a lot for your input. Very interesting and touching.

@Andy: I agree with you.

That's the eternal problem: Women looking for platonic relationships metting men looking for platonic sex...

This text comes from a humoristic blog called failblog.org (here:  http://cheezburger.com/7500405504), it was posted under the title A Rebuttal to All Friend-Zone Complainers.

For me it was obviously satire and I found it quite funny. I didn't share my thoughts about it at the top of the thread because I didn't want to give an orientation to the comments and prefered to see what others thought first. I was very surprised that several think that I have written that text and that this is the way I think.

On the original website, a lady commented: "Reading through the comments, I'm amazed at how many people can't recognize a good satire when they read it." Someone replied: "P, I know but it's still frustrating as hell that that is how some girls REALLY think"  I guess this sums it all up.

So for the record, I strongly disagree with anything that criticises men as a group and with this immature "appreciates me as a person is opposed to wanting to f... me" reasoning. And while I do think it is a shame to lose a person one has regarded as a friend and feeling awkward around him afterwards, I also understand why this happens. Actually that was more the point for me: getting to understand eachother better.

Next time I will try to avoid such misunderstandings. :)

@Free: Women want sexual partners too.

Cheers

Honestly speaking, I do not really believe in friendship between man and woman, but I do believe in friendship during relations. If you love a person, you can become real friends.
I really like to communicate with guys, I like the way of their thoughts, but I communicate mostly in a company of friends. I suppose, if you are a free woman, you can hung out with any guy, but it's mostly a searching process, admit it, antil you find a suitable one. When you are in a couple, I suppose, it looks strange for your boyfriend that you hung out with another man. And if he accepts it without any jealousy, it's kind of wird...

Just for a lighter note ... 

I think that there can be friendships between men and women. Sometimes they are misinterpreted by others, and sometimes one wants something more that the other does.

In social groups, people often speculate "A & B are a couple". Humans tend to interpret random events in a way that creates a comfortable pattern - pareidolia. It may be seeing a bear in the stars or a bunny in a cloud or a romantic union when two people are simply friends.

Since this misinterpretation may cause others to avoid making advances,  it is hard to send the message "hey, we are just friends". 

So when a man who is seeking for a romantic union learns that that is not possible, he will try to distance himself from the other person in order to send the message to the social group "we are not a couple, I am available". 

These things hurt. Rationally, we should form freindships independently of "pairing" relationships. But because humans have such a strong need to form couples, we hurt each other unintentionally.  

Its sad to hear that you dont beleive in freindship between a man and a woman...  a friendship is a relationship... that can grow to love, the same as the reverse is possible as well. Im happy to say some of my best freindships are with women.

this is also a question of perception and reality. A man can accept a womans freindship with another man without jealousy as long as he TRUSTS completely and loves unconditionally. 

That's what I was trying to say that friendship can grow in strong relations and I cannot imaging relations without friendship. I think, man and woman in relations are best friends, they spend a lot of time together, know all the habbits of each other and understand how to chear up each other.
But I wanted to say, if you already have a friend like this in your life, I don't really think that there can be the third in the couple, if you know what I mean :) 

I presume this is a joke!!!!!

Nope, why?