It has been noted that boys will usually associate with one another in groups, while girls pair off. (See, for example, Chesterton in "Two Points of View": "Your co-educative playground for pupils in their teens will not be a place of sexless camaraderie. It will be a place where boys go about in fives sulkily growling at the girls, and where the girls go about in twos turning up their noses at the boys.") Pairing off does seem to be more common among boys when they are younger, but as they get older, especially during adolescence, they associate more and more in groups.

While working in the classroom, quite a few girls (and one boy) have come up to tell me that their friend "doesn't want to be friends with me anymore" or "doesn't want to play with me." It happened again on Thursday. Jealousy is also another common occurrence, when a girl spends more time with another girl, instead of her 'best friend.'

Just recently I heard several people assert the modern dogma that 'gender is a social construction." While the choice of signs may be conventional, the underlying psychology is not, but natural.

What is the ultimate purpose behind the different ways friendships manifest themselves among men and women? I do think that they underscore the different functions of men and women (as the emotional and behavioral development really is a preparation for specific tasks in adulthood.)

G. K. Chesterton's Works on the Web
Kim Anderson Arts -- Romantic greetings and love funpages