FRIENDSHIPS IN AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

Cultural critics of the “feminization of love” have argued that heterosexual love has been feminized by a stress on emotional expressivity that masks “masculine” love, with its greater emphasis on instrumental behaviors. Using survey data, this article examines the extent to which the feminization-of-love hypothesis can be extended to same-sex friendships. Data analyses revealed that women's friendships were more expressive than men's only when a narrow, positive definition of expressivity was employed; men's friendships were found to be more aggressive, but no more instrumental, than those of women. These and other findings support the conclusion that women's friendships are more similar to the cultural images of heroic friendship and sisterhood than to the narrower image of feminized love.