The Sex Part Always Gets in the Way? Experiences of Friendship between Men and Women

The concept of cross-sex friendships is relatively new, however there has been some research on the topic that has shed some insight on the social construct—mostly in the realms of the challenges faced by the cross-sex friendship. I believe that I will be able to contribute to the research by researching how individuals outside of the friendship view cross-sex relationships and see if the perceptions by those outside the friendship match up with the experiences faced by those within the friendship. I have conducted several semi-structured, in-depth interviews and a focus group in order to obtain my data. Through these interviews I hope to answer the following questions: What is the experience of a cross-sex friendship? How do others perceive cross-sex friendships? What makes a cross-sex friendship more or less appealing than a same-sex friendship