"Platonic Love" - International Women’s Day

My biggest realisation from being single has been the importance of platonic love.

There's something about that type of love that offers an overwhelming amount of comfort. It's love without a hidden agenda, without a pressure to perform or to live up to someones expectations. Our friendships are deserving of the same amount of affection we often reserve for romantic relationships - despite what we may have been taught. Platonic relationships provide us with an irreplaceable safe space for love and affection but without the complications of sex. There's immense amounts of comfort in knowing the person you are sharing yourself with will never push physical intimacy on you, you don't have to repeat your boundaries because they're never pushed. In a way, it's safe. 

While love might be filled with it's complexities, two-way platonic affection is the one place where you can definitively say: it's not complicated.

This piece was made in response to my closest friends being in relationships, whilst I'm enjoying being single - possibly for the first time in years. This unusual dynamic of being surrounded with healthy romantic relationships, whilst all of my own seem purely platonic, made me realise that they're just as important as each other. However, platonic relationships are not a way to test the waters, nor should they be used as an opportunity to show someone what you can offer them. They can be intense, sometimes overwhelming but there's no expectation to be anyone other than yourself. I struggle to have that openness in any other relationship that isn't platonic but seeing romantic relationships all around me, even in a time where we're so isolated from each other, gives me comfort. 

Relationships provide an important piece to how we love, and are loved - platonic or not.

For Lilleth and Charlotte