There’s a very good reason that female friendship has become the bedrock of some great stories in film, TV and literature. The cultural messaging around it has remained fairly consistent; they are the most enriching relationships a woman can have, and are among the most indestructible. They have been so romanticised in pop culture that we women expect plenty from them, and they can become as fraught as their romantic equivalents. Doing them right is considered part and parcel of proper adulting, in the same way that marriage once was. The sharp edges are rarely talked about.

Source: Irish Independent March 23, 2026 15:17 UTC