Errol Flynn, lifetime adventurer, lover, and on-screen buccaneer on friendships with women.
Excerpt from pg. 344 of his autobiography My Wicked, Wicked, Ways. (An excellent read for those who like a good adventure, BTW)
"Lili taught me more than I wanted to learn. The workings of a woman's mind are not as tortuous as some think. Novelists make some great mystery about female psychology; but maybe these novelists have had only some piddling experience with women so that they have not had enough to go on, so as to speculate or draw conclusions. It is true I got a late start with the feminine mentality, but Lili had engine power enough to put me out ahead of the rest of my brethren in the opportunity to learn something.
In the same breath I want to say, a woman friend is the best friend you can have. In my early days I was brought up to hear it said that you can never have a real woman friend, that male friendship is deeper, like Damon and Pythias. That is not true - not in my book. I have had two great friends: I still have them. They are so far superior to male friends, so much more understanding, so much more generous in feelings.
Solid friends - both women.
I learned, when the cards were down, who were my friends and who were not - and these were. Women make better friends than men: good, really honest friends. When the going is tough, give me a woman for a friend. If they happen to care for you, they will go farther than any man. Half the world will disagree, but that has been my experience, and it is useless to generalise unless you can speak from the empirical."
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I agree with his sentiment. I don't recall from the book that Errol did much leaving, mostly kept getting left because he made another woman friend. He married several times. I think he would have kept most of his relationships concurrently if he could have.
I enjoy doing activities with men, or having a great constructive argument and still being able to walk away as friends with a simple handshake, but at the end of the day I still long for friendships with women. Which is to say, I want to be married more than once. Because my experience has been that if I like a woman enough to want to seek out time with them, then I probably already love them.
What do you think? Do women make better friends for you? Can you really be "just friends" without feeling a tug towards a deeper relationship?
Excerpt from pg. 344 of his autobiography My Wicked, Wicked, Ways. (An excellent read for those who like a good adventure, BTW)
"Lili taught me more than I wanted to learn. The workings of a woman's mind are not as tortuous as some think. Novelists make some great mystery about female psychology; but maybe these novelists have had only some piddling experience with women so that they have not had enough to go on, so as to speculate or draw conclusions. It is true I got a late start with the feminine mentality, but Lili had engine power enough to put me out ahead of the rest of my brethren in the opportunity to learn something.
In the same breath I want to say, a woman friend is the best friend you can have. In my early days I was brought up to hear it said that you can never have a real woman friend, that male friendship is deeper, like Damon and Pythias. That is not true - not in my book. I have had two great friends: I still have them. They are so far superior to male friends, so much more understanding, so much more generous in feelings.
Solid friends - both women.
I learned, when the cards were down, who were my friends and who were not - and these were. Women make better friends than men: good, really honest friends. When the going is tough, give me a woman for a friend. If they happen to care for you, they will go farther than any man. Half the world will disagree, but that has been my experience, and it is useless to generalise unless you can speak from the empirical."
------------
I agree with his sentiment. I don't recall from the book that Errol did much leaving, mostly kept getting left because he made another woman friend. He married several times. I think he would have kept most of his relationships concurrently if he could have.
I enjoy doing activities with men, or having a great constructive argument and still being able to walk away as friends with a simple handshake, but at the end of the day I still long for friendships with women. Which is to say, I want to be married more than once. Because my experience has been that if I like a woman enough to want to seek out time with them, then I probably already love them.
What do you think? Do women make better friends for you? Can you really be "just friends" without feeling a tug towards a deeper relationship?
