# Are Ex SOs off limits to friends? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949 "2010-11-26T03:40:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/141 "2010-12-01T19:53:22Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > I’m guessing here…but I’d be willing to bet that Mango didn’t spend 7 years overseas finding his Chinese bride, and finishing high school upon his return. Doesn’t matter - you claimed it was a more common attitude among women, and were pointed out that it was common among men as well. Anyway, I don’t find your evidence compelling - I wouldn’t consider the women you know to be a “representative sample of women in society”. The women _I_ know have no such rules about dating exes. Guess our anecdotes cancel each other out. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/142 "2010-12-01T20:48:05Z")
Frankly, I think it’s less about the sex of the “representative samples” and more about the age. I can see both men _and_ women behaving this way, providing they were currently in high school. Maybe a _little_ when they reach their early 20s, but by the time they hit 25, if they’re still acting like this then they clearly never grew out of something they should have. So it’s really not a guy/girl thing we’re talking about here; it’s more of a man-child thing (in the case of the OP). ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/143 "2010-12-01T20:55:08Z")
Please stop referring to the OP as Mango. I keep thinking of the Chris Kattan character. Urgh. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/144 "2010-12-01T21:04:09Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I wouldn’t consider the women you know to be a “representative sample of women in society”. The difference is, you don’t know or even get to see the opinions and postings of the women I know, so you hardly have a foundation to even make such a claim. @ Carl Corey my apologoies. The teenage son of Mango, doesn’t invoke a much better image. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/145 "2010-12-01T21:17:57Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > The difference is, you don’t know or even get to see the opinions and postings of the women I know, so you hardly have a foundation to even make such a claim. Once again, doesn’t matter at all. Point is, you’re using anecdotal evidence and extrapolating it to apply to “most women”. Seems like you’ve been on the boards long enough to know why that’s wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/146 "2010-12-01T22:05:33Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Once again, doesn’t matter at all. Point is, you’re using anecdotal evidence and extrapolating it to apply to “most women”. Seems like you’ve been on the boards long enough to know why that’s wrong. And you, sir or madam, fail to see what forum we are in. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/147 "2010-12-01T23:35:19Z")
Sir, FTR. And I think the aim of the boards overall trumps the (assumed) leeway of the forum. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/148 "2010-12-02T14:47:00Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Sir, FTR. And I think the aim of the boards overall trumps the (assumed) leeway of the forum. Fail again. This is an opinion thread and forum. There are no right or wrong answers, just differences of opinions. I think your opinions are wrong. My “anecdotal” evidence may be anecdotal “in your opinion”, but not to me. Go back to GD, where you belong. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/149 "2010-12-02T16:40:18Z")
Bullshit. This forum is not a bubble where logic and facts don’t apply just because it’s named IMHO. Your “evidence” isn’t just anecdotal in my opinion, it’s anecdotal by definition. Plenty of people get called out in this forum for faulty reasoning. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/150 "2010-12-02T16:55:11Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Bullshit. This forum is not a bubble where logic and facts don’t apply just because it’s named IMHO. Your “evidence” isn’t just anecdotal in my opinion, it’s anecdotal by definition. Plenty of people get called out in this forum for faulty reasoning. As I have called you out numerous times in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/151 "2010-12-02T19:14:42Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > I’m guessing here…but I’d be willing to bet that Mango didn’t spend 7 years overseas finding his Chinese bride, and finishing high school upon his return. You missed my point. That was a jab at the OP for not growing out of the attitude, and a lot of guys _don’t_ grow out of that attitude. Google “man rules dating ex” and you’ll see that it’s nowhere near an unusual attitude or that it is somehow exclusive to “chicks.” Even the [Miller Light Man Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Laws) series of commercials plays on this attitude. Or this website [on “Man Laws”.](http://www.officialmanlaws.com/a-friends-ex/) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/152 "2010-12-02T19:35:01Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > There are 100’s and 100’s of girls out there. The “Guy Rule” should have applied. “Girls” constitute a fungible commodity only from an extremely immature point of view. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/153 "2010-12-02T19:37:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Even the [Miller Light Man Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Laws) series of commercials plays on this attitude. Real men do not drink Miller Lite. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/154 "2010-12-02T20:06:59Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > Real men do not drink Miller Lite. And “real men” don’t have “man laws,” but that doesn’t change the fact that there is a popular idea of Man Laws out there, and your assertion that “guys do not” have these sorts of rules, and that this is solely the province of “girl rules” is demonstrably untrue. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/155 "2010-12-02T20:39:37Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > As I have called you out numerous times in this thread. Now, see, _that’s_ an opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/156 "2010-12-02T21:16:06Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > And “real men” don’t have “man laws,” but that doesn’t change the fact that there is a popular idea of Man Laws out there, and your assertion that “guys do not” have these sorts of rules, and that this is solely the province of “girl rules” is demonstrably untrue. Nope it just means that there a lot guys that live by “girls rules”. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/157 "2010-12-03T01:44:15Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Now, see, _that’s_ an opinion. And that’s a fact. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949/158 "2010-12-03T02:12:45Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > Nope it just means that there a lot guys that live by “girls rules”. Stay classy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ex-sos-off-limits-to-friends/561949.md?page=7)