Ladies, once a guy lets himself get into the friend zone is there any way for him to get back out?
The only guys I've ever seen escape the dreaded friend-zone are the guys that were there either by choice (they had their own girlfriend), or because the girl was attached - or both.
I don't really consider this to be the "friend-zone" per se, however.
It's more like "the OBE* Zone".
The friend-zone is applicable when the guy likes a girl - often desperately, but she would rather stick her tongue in a dead yak's anus than in his mouth. But she will keep this poor schmuck around because he talks to her sweetly, often buys her things, strokes her ego and provides a shoulder to cry on when the guy she's actually ####ing hurts her.
I don't believe any man has ever escaped this vortex. In fact, I think a man would have a better time getting back to this side of a Black Hole's event horizon than getting out of the friend-zone.
That said, I've seen men and women who were friends, who ended up as more. I've done that a couple times. But the times I was in the friend-zone, I've never come out **.
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* Overcome by events
** Except I'm not friends with any of them any more - so now I'm just 'this creepy dude they used to know'.