*-Friend

Today is the day before Thanksgiving and we went out for a team lunch. Of course there was talk and talk of the people who are visiting over the long weekend.Naturally there was some good-natured ribbing when our female engineer announced that her friend was visiting -- her male friend. He wasn't a boyfriend though she was careful to point out. This kicked off a bit of a discussion about friends and the nomenclature of friendship. And a male engineer piped in with a smile that his girlfriend was visiting him.Say, for instance, you hear someone who's female say "I'm going out with my girlfriends." You would assume it's a girls' night out or something like that. But why do you have to even really specify? Why can't you just be going out with friends? And the same holds true for the male half of the population. Now think how that language may or may not change in cases that the speaker isn't heterosexual.A co-worker from Denmark pointed out that it's not nearly as distinct back where he's from.Sure, there is the person or people who you are intimate with, and a whole bunch of people who you are friends with, and a continuum between to boot. But why do we need all the labels? My gut feel is much of it is trying to get us all into a normative relationship patterns -- what society is comfortable with instead of what is good for the participants.Why can't we all just be friends?