A cruel phrase that
women use to indicate their lack of romantic interest in a man. It's a surefire sign that yes,
She does not like you in the way that you hope for, and no, she never will. If she did, she wouldn't be encouraging your search for companionship. It's definitely better than '
Let's just be friends', but somewhat worse than simply being a
gay friend since it's an indication that she does care about you and sees that you're lonely, but this also means that she doesn't care for you enough/is not attracted to you enough/finds you far too sexually repulsive to ease that
loneliness herself. The implication that you are unable of finding a caring partners on your own is simply added
emotional castration. Also see
depression,
self-hatred and
suicide.
Ironically, I believe that women who use this term are unaware of the pain it causes. It's not as widespread a meme as say 'LJBF'. Hrm. Education is needed. To be fair to them as well, it may be that some men hide their feelings for the women so well because they have not yet recieved go-ahead signs that the women genuinely have no idea of the hope they're crushing and instead feel that they're doing their friend a great service. I'd feel more charitable about this if such statements weren't often made by the same women who say 'I would never date someone younger/shorter/co-worker/close to me'. Ba-fucking-humbug.