Friendship's freedom and gendered limits

Bibliographic Data

ID2398026
AuthorsHarry Blatterer (0000-0001-9532-9084, Macquarie University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume16
Issue4
Pages435-456
Publication date2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1368431013484000
OpenAlexW2014988534
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited86

This article elaborates the interactional freedom of friendship and its limits. It shows that friendship is marked by a normative freedom that makes it relatively resistant to reification, especially when compared to erotic love. It argues further, however, that due to friendship's embeddedness in the contemporary gender order, this freedom is limited. Having first outlined the freedom hypothesis, the article goes on to argue that friendship's normative freedom is made possible by its weak 'institutional connectivity'. To clarify that point, the article illustrates friendship's resistance to the reifying tendencies of therapy culture and then draws the gendered boundary of friendship's freedom with reference to the position of heterosexual cross-sex friendship in the heteronormative social imaginary. The article concludes by way of argument for a differentiated approach to friendship and suggests that the analysis of its freedom provides significant clues concerning the work that remains to be done towards equal gender relations

Epistemology · Friendship · Normative · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Gender Studies · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology

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