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If your like me, I can't tell who's the more sexier of the stupid...
Sometimes a guy really does want to just be friends with a girl; at least as far as conscious decisions about what he wants go; but he can't get rid of his sexual thoughts about her.
Maybe something about her, whether appearance or personality or whatever else, just seems sexy to him. Perhaps he is just so dirty-minded by his very nature that even without much reason for Fetish Fuel he just has sexual thoughts about her anyway. Whatever the case, the lust conflicts with the friendship, and he would try, often not that easily, to conceal the former.
Gender-inversions are probably going to be rarer, given the stereotypes, and even when they would happen, it wouldn't be as big a deal anyway.
Compare AND contast with I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship. The difference lies in the reaction of the character feeling the romantic/sexual feelings (and, in many cases, the former relationship between the two): if they're creeped out by their sudden attraction to the person they had always considered a brother/sister, it's this trope; if they're worried that admitting their feelings to someone with whom they've been Just Friends will cause drama or change a group dynamic, it's I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship.
Compare Stupid Sexy Flanders, as it reflects on a similar conflict between the sexual thoughts one has and consciously thinking one shouldn't have such sexual thoughts. (And yes, this is snowcloned from it.)
Truth in Television, of course. After all, it's considered normal to lust after someone you don't know, as opposed to a close friend (that you do know).
Anime and Manga[]
- Hiyori from Lucky Star often has to stop herself from imagining romantic scenes between her (female) friends Yutaka and Minami.
- In Yuri series Sasameki Koto, Tall, Dark and Bishoujo Sumika Murasame is stuck being Just Friends with Lipstick Lesbian Ushio Kazama (not this trope), but as the story goes on, we find out that Ushio has fallen for Sumika at some point but is extremely uncomfortable being attracted to a close friend (this trope).
- From Touch: Tatsuya: "One day, we became aware that one of the three of us was a girl." Thus began the Childhood Friend Romance Love Triangle. Oh, and a good deal of baseball too.
- in Infinite Stratos, this is VIRTUALLY Ichika's relationship with all the member of his Unwanted Harem, he is indeed interested in them, ranging from cute (Rin, Laura, Char), fascination of beauty (Cecilia) and outright sexual (Houki, probably Char). Point is: He doesn't want to have a girlfriend yet.
Film[]
- Billy Crystal's character in When Harry Met Sally epitomizes this trope, and it plays a major part in the plot of the film itself.
Literature[]
- A lesbian example of the trope occurs in Killswitch, the third book in the Cassandra Kresnov trilogy by Joel Shepherd. The titular android's bisexual best friend admits to having fallen in love with Cassandra, but the latter is straight and the friend doesn't want to affect their working and non-working relationships.
Live Action TV[]
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this was pretty much how Xander felt about Buffy after he got past being outright attracted to her and too inept to say so.
- On NCIS: Los Angeles: It's a quick moment, but it's there. When Kensi is compelled to do a quick change in clothes in the middle of an undercover op, Callen's eyes widen. And he politely looks away.
- For a brief period Angel's feelings towards Cordelia are this, with him sort of horrified that he does feel something romantic for her when previously they were like family. By the time he gets over it there's other issues preventing them getting together... not that there weren't already.
- In Community, Jeff and Annie often fell into this territory. As early as Season 3, they were an Official Couple in all but name but the age difference and the default nature of the relationship made them both feel somewhat squicky about the idea of hooking up, despite how much they both seem to wanted to hook up. The Grand Finale outright questioned if they were in love with each other or simply the idea of being in love with each other.
- In Doctor Who, a good chunk of the Doctor and Clara Oswald's relationship had to deal with this. "She Said, He Said: A Prequel" can be summarized as the two being frustrated that they've fallen in love despite their better instincts. By Series 9 they were an Official Couple/Anchored Ship in all but name.
- On the Doctor's side, he was still reeling from the loss of Amy and Rory but eventually grew attached to Clara. Admittedly his attraction was more to Clara's personality but it doesn't help that he really likes looking at Clara.
- On Clara's side, her Control Freak tendencies allowed her something of a buffer but she eventually did fall in love with the Doctor. When he regenerated into the Silver Fox Twelfth Doctor, the feelings were downplayed for a time before she realized that despite becoming more cynical, the Doctor was still the same man and her love was as strong as ever.
Web Comics[]
- All New Issues provides the page image; the image links to the context.
Western Animation[]
- Brian for Lois in Family Guy.
- Linda to Francine in American Dad!. What makes this more tragic is Linda is unaware that Francine is bi and doesn't seem to consider lesbian affairs as cheating.