Call them the rules of unattraction.
Personal trainer and dating guru David de las Morenas, better known as @howtobeast on social media, has shared three “low-key” red flags in female behavior — and according to him, women better not be friends with any guys.
“Aside from some very rare scenarios, when a guy and a girl are talking, it is not platonic,” de las Morenas claims in the video, which has attracted 506,000 views since it was uploaded this week.
“And even if she’s not interested in him, he’s probably interested in her — and then she likes having that validation.”
De las Morenas continued, explaining that if the girl has male friends that she hangs out with a lot or just texts with, she’s the “type” to always have one foot out the door.
De las Morenas also said it’s a bad sign when a woman doesn’t show gratitude and when she manipulates in “small ways” by talking about her exes and not texting her partner first.
But it’s the male-female friendship warning — the second red flag in de las Morenas’ list —that sparked debate in comments about if guys and girls can actually just be friends.
“#2 true from experience unfortunately,” one user confessed. “Even when married with kids.”
Another seemed to agree, emphasizing, “Guys and girls cannot be friends. They made a whole move about it called, ‘When Harry Met Sally.’”
One TikToker weighed in with, “Number 2 is a HUGE red flag.”
According to Manhattan-based psychotherapist Dana Dorfman, it’s possible for men and women to be “just friends,” but at some point, they will think about taking their relationship past that stage.
“I think it’s inevitable it will cross at least one person’s mind,” Dorfman told Refinery29 in 2019. “Part of friendship is there being an emotional attraction to the other person. Whether it necessarily translates to a sexual relationship is another story, but I think it would be very difficult for it not to at least be a consideration.”
Even so, some TikTok users still could not believe what they were seeing.
“Couldn’t agree less with #2,” someone argued in the comments. “Had platonic male friends my whole life, and not a single one looked at me that way.”
“#2 is pure bs,” another viewer declared. “I have a lot of platonic male friends and married to my husband, whom I adore and love for 26 years.”
One user discounted all of de las Morenas’ so-called “red flags,” writing, “This is not accurate.”