One flying school I knew tried to ensure the women students met up - perhaps so they could find 'flying buddies'. After the innuendo from some posters I can understand why! I've never thought twice about flying with 'sensible' men, but I can see that some grubby minded people will have thought the worst.
Viola,
It's not even things like that. Flying with members of the opposite sex who you're not 'involved' with can sometimes make things so complicated. Let me tell you a couple of things which happened to me....
Way back, as a very new PPL, I used to fly regularly with Mike, who got his licence about the same time as I got mine. For the same money we could fly twice as far with half the work and twice the fun - great idea.
One day we flew from Welshpool to Blackpool, assuming the '30PROB' of thunderstorms wouldn't happen. It did...in spades! A line of thunderstorms from Liverpool to Leeds that stranded everyone, grounded airliners, and left Blackpool awash and full of people on their mobile phones sorting out their lives. A night in Blackpool. No big deal, you say. Except that a twin room was all that was available and Mike was horribly embarrassed at telling me - I didn't care, been there, done that. Except that he was married, and had told his mates at work who he was flying with that day and when he said he couldn't come in he was horribly teased. And I was sworn to secrecy if I ever met his wife!!! All no big deal in the real sense...but if you fly with a member of the same gender it doesn't happen!
Move on a few months, and I'm flying to Cornwall for the total eclipse, with Chris (male). A camping trip, with another married man -wife didn't want to go and didn't mind. Naturally he assumed we'd take two tents...but aircraft weight and balance figures didn't agree! OK, I said, I promise not to attack you, now get rid of one tent! Again, no big deal - it was nearly the 21st century after all. But if Chris had been female it wouldn't have come up.
So these days, if I'm looking for a flying buddy and not a relationship, I tend to fly with other women.
And my good friend Whirlygig would probably say, "But it wasn't important, was it?" and she'd be quite right. I just find flying complicated enough that I prefer not to add to the complications, that's all.
However, if any bloke wants a flying companion to go with them to Australia or anywhere else really exciting, please ignore all of the above.
