Was Marchalonis writing only about American colleges? Because I know that the timeline for the acceptability of male romantic friendships was different in the USA and Britain.

I've gone through my American high school yearbooks (1978-1981), and what is remarkable in the photos is how much touching the girls permitted themselves toward each other, versus the guys toward the guys. The guys could basically only touch each other in sports or when joking around. So even if female friendships at school fell out of fashion, I think they were still going strong when I grew up.