Personally, I don’t lust after all of my female friends. Sure, sexual thoughts pass through my head about some of them, and I’ll notice if they’re attractive, but I also make a distinction.
If, in my mind, a friend is off-limits, then I most-likely won’t think about sex with them. Now, that brings up the question of what makes a friend off-limits. That’s a tough one…it can be different things. If the female friend is either really close or has a SO, then that might make them off-limits in my mind. I guess with both it’s kind of an internal honour mechanism: they trust me or their SO trusts me, so I must be trustworthy. Not to say that those that think otherwise are in the wrong; this is just my thing.
However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t see anything ever happening with my female friends. It just means that, for the most part, if the relationship is only one for friendship, that’s how I think about it.
Now, there are exceptions. For instance, if a female friend is talking about sex (ie. them having it). How could I not think about it then? 