Of course they can be just friends. By this logic, gay/lesbian people would have no friends of the same gender and bisexuals would have no friends AT ALL. I'm bisexual and I have friends and acquaintances of both genders, some of whom I even think are technically good looking and attractive but I am not attracted to them. No one is going to be attracted to every single member of the gender they're into, not even to every such person that happens to technically be their type.


I think the problem is that, depending on how conservative/sexist local culture is, too many people are conditioned into not viewing members of the opposite gender as potential platonic friends and as, primarily, other human beings just like them. Men and women aren't all that different, it's society that grooms them differently and that is easy to observe if you look at the differences between how men and women are around the world based on the culture they've been brought up in.


What happens is that we still overly sexualise women to the point where, even if subtly, we perceive women primarily through that lense, with this emphasis on looks and how satisfying they are for straight men to look at or have sex with. We still condition children into liking things and behaving a certain way depending on gender and that creates the divide, not anything else.

Men and women can be friends just as any two humans can be friends, as long as they have similar enough views of the world, shared interests, personalities that fit and complement each other.


Of course it happens that friendship can turn into more if both are attracted to the opposite sex, but that's not because straight/bi men and women can't be platonic friends, it's just that it's always a possibility simply because both have the capacity to feel that towards someone of the opposite gender. Oh and I don't know how others here see it but for me friendship is an essential component of romantic love, I could never fall in love with someone who I don't also want as my friend. Just because there's more to it, it doesn't mean it doesn't also contain friendship.