Lifestyle

14 Reasons Why Having A Guy Best Friend Is Better Than A Boyfriend

by Candice Jalili
Lumina

Having a boyfriend is obviously fantastic for many reasons. But, there's an undeniable awesomeness that comes with having a truly platonic male best friend.

Here are 14 reasons why a good boy friend beats having a boyfriend:

He's in it for the long haul.

What does the second “F” in BFF stand for? Oh yeah, that's right: forever.

Simply put, unlike a boyfriend, who could potentially end things at any given moment, your male best friend does not have the luxury of calling it quits as soon as the going gets tough.

By the same token, neither do you. This forces you guys to work things out.

He'll honestly tell you what that dress looks like on you.

Someone who is trying to get in your pants will never be completely honest about how the pants actually look on you.

Whether your ass looks absolutely fantastic or like a pancake, your male best friend has no reason to lie to you.

You can order whatever you want at dinner.

As someone with a penchant for the finer things in life, I often find dinner dates to be a bit of a challenge.

I love to be wined and dined as much as the next girl, but certain unavoidable limitations arise when you know your date is paying for your meal.

Just to be clear, by “certain limitations,” I mean I can't order the $50 steak I want without looking like a total douchebag.

If my best friend is paying for my meal, it is only because I left my wallet at home and I'm paying for his the next time we go out.

This leaves me with the freedom to devour my New York Strip with a clear conscience.

You can be disgusting in front of him.

Aside from the financial factor mentioned above, there are certain images that go into my “devouring” of a New York Strip that would probably be a pretty ginormous deal-breaker for most men interested in boinking me.

I could not care less whether or not my best friend wants to boink me. In fact, I would prefer he didn't want to boink me at all.

With this understanding of mutual un-attraction, we are free to do gross things, like burp and fart and talk with our mouths filled to the brim.

In fact, we can, and often do, talk about pooping, burping and farting while talking with our mouths filled to the brim.

He genuinely likes you for your awesome personality.

It's not your awesome rack or fantastic smile that interests him, it's just you.

Your relationship with your guy best friend has an inherent level of depth because it has nothing to do with physical attraction or appearance. He genuinely loves you because of your character.

You don't have to force anything.

If your boyfriend is into indie rock, you'll have to give it a shot, even if it makes your ears feel like they will start bleeding at any given moment.

You want to have things in common with your significant other so you will try your best to make things work.

Nine times out of 10, your guy best friend is your best friend because the two of you already have a ton of things in common.

There's no need to impress him with a feigned interest in the weird music you hate.

No need to engage in the world's dumbest texting conversations.

“Hey, how are you?” “Hey, what's up?” “Hey, how's your day going?”

These are a few of the totally unnecessary bullsh*t conversations we feel we need to have when we are in relationships.

There's no need for your best friend to text you, “Hey, how's your day going?” because if you haven't contacted him, odds are, things are fine.

Texting is only reserved for inside jokes and making plans for the immediate future (i.e. “Get up, let's get breakfast” as opposed to “Hey! Are you gonna be free to maybe get dinner at this new place in Greenwich next Friday?”).

You don't have to worry about annoying him.

If your boyfriend doesn't respond to a “get up, let's get breakfast” text, you might hesitate to call him 37 times and finally resolve to show up at his front door to physically wake him up yourself for fear that he might think you're crazy and obsessed with him and be left with no choice but to dump you.

As mentioned earlier, your best friend does not have the luxury of dumping you when you annoy the sh*t out of him.

He knows you are not crazy (and if you are, he loves you for it) and, although he might be a little peeved after the 37th phone call, he has no real choice but to make fun of you for being a psycho stalker and get over it.

You don't have to buy him gifts for random bullsh*t holidays.

From Valentine's Day to the one-month anniversary of the day you started dating to the four-month anniversary of the day you first kissed to the five-month anniversary of the day you first met, relationships are filled with plenty of bullsh*t holidays for which you are forced to come up with sweet, thoughtful gifts.

There is one holiday that forces you to buy a gift for your male best friend, and that is his birthday. No need to slave over a cute little scrapbook or heartfelt letter; just buy him a gift card or a bottle of his favorite liquor and you should be good to go.

You can take him home to your parents without it being a big deal.

Despite being extremely close to my family, I am yet to invite one boy with whom I have been romantically involved to meet them for fear that he would automatically assume I am deeply in love with him and want to get married tomorrow.

On the other hand, my closest guy friends have all been over to my house a million times and my mom definitely likes a few of them more than she likes me. There's no pressure when they meet her.

There was no reading into why I invited them over, so we were just able to hang out and have fun.

He listens.

No matter how much your boyfriend loves you to pieces, there are certain times when his focus will fall back on how nice your rack looks in that shirt or whether or not you guys will have sex tonight.

As mentioned earlier, your male best friend is not interested in your rack. He's also probably well aware you guys have a 0 percent chance of having sex tonight. This gives him no choice but to listen to what you have to say.

Not to mention, he genuinely loves your personality so much that he's probably interested in what you have to say.

He brings no drama into your life.

“I love him so much it hurts.” “I don't think I love him enough.” “I think he's cheating on me.” “He hasn't talked to me in two days.” “He got a job in Boston and I want to stay in New York…”

Even the best romantic relationships come with their fair share of drama. If anything, your relationship with your guy best friend serves as a safe haven from all the other drama in your life.

Without any games, ulterior motives or heightened emotions, you guys are free to be totally honest and call each other out on your bullsh*t.

You really can just watch a movie with him.

In the dating world, “watch a movie” is code for, at the very least, a hardcore snuggle sesh. This can be so cute and so fun, but problems start arising when I'm interested in the movie and I can't focus with your hand sensually rubbing my upper thigh.

“Watch a movie” takes on a whole new meaning when it involves my male best friend, as I can pick a movie I want to see and, get this, see it.

Furthermore, I can do it in the comfort of my ugliest sweats and both my retainers in without any sort of sensual thigh rubbing to distract me.

You never have to feel self-conscious about your body.

No matter how confident we are with our bodies, we all have those “f*ck! I forgot to shave!” and “ugh please don't touch me there” moments when with our significant others.

Your best friendship, free from any sort of physical attraction to begin with, automatically marks all of these insecurities as null and void.