When Harry Met Sally is an incredibly amazing romantic comedy staring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. It depicts their lives and their struggle between hating each other, friendship, and love. The main focus of this movie is the idea that Harry has, that men and women can never be friends. He believes this because love and other feeling will get in the way. He thinks that no matter what, he cannot be friends with an attractive woman, because he thinks he can never like them as just a friend.
I was immediately put off by that theory. I thought to myself as I sat on my couch snuggled in a blanket eating popcorn, ‘I have plenty of guys, that are friends.’ However, through watching the movie I saw that Harry and Sally, although constantly trying to be ‘just friends’ and ignore their other feelings, were meant to be together. And in the end, well I might ruin the ending here, but it’s just like every romantic comedy in the end, they end up together in love.
After the movie ends I think to myself, ‘well its just a movie;’ but is it? Can men and women truly be just friends? I think even further to the chemistry of our bodies. What is love, really, chemically? Isn’t it just a bunch of chemical reactions in your brain releasing different endorphins and neurotransmitters?
But I tend to think of myself as an optimist rather than a pessimist. And I think love and friendship both come down to faith. Its like what Noah says in The Notebook, “Science can only take you so far.” You’ve got to trust yourself and your instincts and you truly will find friendship and love in your life. It does not matter if it is a man and a woman; it is completely possible for them to be great friends or in love, it just depends.
1 comment:
While I was sitting in the airport I had my criteria book with me, and randomly was flipping through pages. I just so happened to come across Nicholas Cain’s essay called Why Cant We Be Friends: Children’s Literature on Cross-Sex Friendships. It was really coincidental that I had just read your post and found this essay. It states that male and females can just be friends without attaching sexual relationship feelings to it. Cain describes his thoughts about cross-sex relationships by using examples from Judith Viorst’s Rosie and Michael and then later counter exampling by using examples from Kathy Werking’s We’re Just Good Friends. Viorst’s book defends the fact that “the values of forgiveness and liking someone for his or her character are not always traits of an adult cross-sex relationships.” I thought this statement was appropriate for this certain circumstance considering it is a children’s book. It is easier for children of the opposite not to be sexually attracted to each other because they are not aware of those feelings. In contrary Kathy Werking states, “’ in American culture, adult women and adult men are expected to form romantic bonds rather than platonic bonds with one another.’” I feel like this statement is legitimate considering when men and women get older the need to find a spouse and start a family so friendships are seen as somewhat pointless. Personally I do not feel this way but from movies like When Harry Met Sally, and many articles that advertise this cultural myth it makes it seem more reasonable that Werking’s views and these myths are correct. It is bizarre how that view has been widely accepted!
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