There’s a huge difference between getting along with your man’s friends and becoming friends with your man’s friends. The latter may initially appear to be beneficial and cool, but a study finds that it can lead to serious issues down the road.
Research conducted by sociologists Benjamin Cornwell of Cornell University and Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago finds that a woman’s friendship with her man’s friend, i.e. partner betweeness, causes men to feel less masculine, which can result in εrectile dysfunction and/or an inability to have an οrgasm. “Men who experience partner betweenness in their joint relationships are more likely to have trouble getting or maintaining an εrection and are also more likely to experience difficulty achieving οrgasm during sεx,” the sociologists write.
Cornwell and Laumann argue that partner betweenness ruins men’s feelings of autonomy and privacy, which are the core to traditional concepts of masculinity. In addition to the aforementioned, a woman’s friendship with her man’s friends can lead to overt conflict or problems with partner satisfaction and attraction. Fortunately, in this instance, wisdom comes with age because men change their definition of masculinity as they grow older and partner betweenness doesn’t have a damaging effect anymore. “Older men’s greater focus on close, kin-oriented relationships increases their likelihood of adopting new definitions of masculinity that emphasize conveying experience and mentoring rather than independence and autonomy, and under these circumstances partner betweenness is less likely to trigger [ED],” Cornwell says. Click here to read more about the study.
