I am not talking about men who form a crush on one of their female friends. That's a very natural and commonplace occurrence. Of course, it's normal to develop feelings for someone whom you meet often and share many things in common with. 

And am not talking about those unethical women, who are well aware of a man's feelings towards them, have no intention of reciprocation, yet take them for a ride- either to make them do emotional labour, make them feel validated, or to have access to his resources, etc.

I am targeting a specific ilk of men, who approach women for platonic friendship, despite having very different intentions towards her. 

These men do not even have the gumption to be upfront about their feelings and tell the woman outright that he is attracted to her and has approached her to have a romantic/non-platonic relationship. 

No, they approach her, pretend they are here to be her BFF, and then when she takes him at his word, this type of man gets outraged that he has been “friend-zoned”. 

I am sorry if I sound mean, but I struggle to have any empathy for such men. No shit Sherlock! You asked for friendship, that’s what you got!

I dunno how much this sort of thing happens in the Anglosphere, but in my country India, it's very common for men to approach women for “fraandship” and later blame the girl for being a “meanie who friend-zoned me.”

I will later share a post on how it's not actually bad to be “friendzoned”. The alternative is not as rosy as what most men think.