Odd Couples

<div><i>Odd Couples</i> examines friendships between gay men and straight women and also between lesbians and straight men and shows how these intersectional friendships serve as a barometer for shifting social norms particularly regarding gender and sexual orientation. Based on author Anna Muraco's interviews the work challenges two widespread assumptions: that men and women are fundamentally different and that men and women can only forge significant bonds within romantic relationships. Intersectional friendships challenge a variety of social norms Muraco says including the limited roles that men and women are expected to play in one another's lives. Each chapter uses these boundary-crossing relationships to highlight how key social constructs such as family politics gender and sexuality shape everyday interactions. Friendship itself-whether intersectional or not-becomes the center of the analysis taking its place as an important influence on the social behavior of adults.</div>