What do you think is the importance of female friendships?
Oh my god, female friendships are everything. Female friendships have sustained me from my earliest days as a child. I think that the friendship that women share is so powerful. In fact, there’s nothing quite like it. People talk about mother-child bonds, but I would argue that female friendship bond is also in a league unto its own. You can love your girlfriend—I mean in a platonic sense—in a way that is sometimes more powerful than the man you’re married to. You can have a sense of loyalty and commitment and compassion and empathy and understanding—at least I feel like that—and I know that a lot of my girlfriends also feel like that. We really value each other and rely upon each other and call upon each other in good times and bad times.
- Amanda de CadenetI'm gay for my best friends. That sounds a little extreme, but my love and fascination for them are so strong. I admire them in all their forms, good and bad. My entire life I've never had a real best friend that I felt compelled by. And by compelled I mean an overwhelming sense of a strong sisterhood bond. So why, all of the sudden, within three months, did I end up with two of the most fantastic girls as my best friends? Sometimes I think it's a set up and that they're going to disappear in some way and my fun will be over.
My friend B sprung the idea on me that you don't find your soulmates in men, but in your best girlfriends (possibly some jumbled up Amanda de Cadenet quote, I can't remember, we were sipping beer). But I remember so clearly on that July summer night in Sheboygan, Wisconsin two things: 1) that Amanda is 100% right, and 2) the fact that B brought that up when we were out on the front porch of her guy friend's house having girl talk and being divas; excluding ourself from the male party that was inside, was fantastic.
I think a platonic relationship with your girlfriends (or girlfriend) is so important. Sure a boyfriend is nice; he's around for different reasons though. Your girlfriends are around so that you can tell each other absolutely everything. And I mean everything; from the gross to the glamorous. It's just so nice to share your little idiosyncrasies, mistakes, secrets and dreams with someone who will actually understand them and be like, "yeah, I've been there".
I really love this little post from Garance Doré about the best qualities in a friendship (some personal favorites on that list include: 1, 4, 7 and 12). A friendship between two women is something special. There's a sense of magic. I mean it's magic when you can sit there with your friend and watch Long Island Medium and almost cry it all out and eat Whole Foods desserts all night, right?