Women's Best Friendships : Beyond Betty, Veronica, Thelma, and Louise

Explore the distinct relationships of close female friends!Women’s Best Friendships: Beyond Betty, Veronica, Thelma, and Louise gives new and comprehensive insight into the complex world of women’s closest friendships. Recent studies have shown that women place enormous value on best friendships and consider them to be woven tightly into the fabric of their lives. Using in-depth interviews, along with close readings of relevant literature and theory, this book focuses on the many facets of these relationships. With heartfelt first-person accounts and insightful commentary from the author, this book examines three intertwining themes: feelings of competition, issues of dependence and independence, and knowing/understanding. This book sheds light on areas of tension among women, especially difficulties in communication, frustration about not being entirely let into a friend’s life and thought processes, and the feeling that one friend may value the friendship more than the other. It also discusses women’s struggles to maintain closeness over increased distances and the realization that one’s friends are flawed, even as friends. This informative book, grounded in established research and theory, presents stories of real friendships--told by the people who live them. These women talk candidly about what makes a best friend, about navigating the choppy waters of friendship, and much more: “Somehow, when we started living farther apart there were ways in which we were being insensitive. We recognized that there was a really strong bond, but we were taking it for granted. So we talked about how close we feel to one another and perhaps how that leads to some arguments or hurt feelings.” --Liz, on how distance has affected her relationship with her best friend Susan“Em and I don’t fight at all. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I don’t think I do well with fights. I think that’s probably a lot of conflict avoidance on my part. And I think it does lead to some distance, eve