It seems to have come up in conversations recently, so after all of these years I've decided to give some thought to the question. What are the differences (for me) between female friends and male friends? Aside from the obvious.
I am fortunate to say that I have had many close relationships with both sexes over the years, my first boy "friend" was Steven. I'm very bad with dates and years so I'm guessing we were about six or seven. Steven lived three doors down from me and he was a year younger. We played lots of made up games and explored nature. Once we found a dead bird and dissected it. That was the day I got my first wasp sting. Then there was Sandy, we played house. At this point in my life there were no little girls on my block and so I had not yet experienced a real girlfriend, I also had only boy cousins, so I guess you could say I developed an ease around boys.
My first real girlfriend that I remember was when I started elementary school. Her name was Melody and sometimes I ate lunch at her house or visited after school.
My friendships were never like "The Bill Chill" I never was in a group of friends that hung out and did stuff together. It was always one on one and still is. Every once in a while there would be two girls, it was fun while it lasted but it never seemed to, last that is.
So now lets get to the meat of the question. What are the differences? Well, with girlfriends, we talk about boys (boyfriends, love interests) and with boys we talked about love interests, usually of the opposite sex. Occasionally, I would go shopping with a friend, but usually alone. Some guys are very helpful at this. Drinks, dinner, lunch, movies, it's all the same with boys and girls. Talking is the key. Real friends no matter which sex are best to talk to. Talking on the sofa, on the phone, at tea, while standing by your car, skyping, texting, iming.
Ya know how people always say the sign of a true friend is: "it doesn't matter how long we've been apart we just pick up were we left off" I say the sign of a true friend is when one or both of you needs to leave and neither of you can stop talking.
The sex of the person makes not one bit a difference.