Both major storylines in Fried Green Tomatoes center on relationships between women: the developing friendship between Evelyn Couch and Ninny Threadgoode in a 1980s nursing home, and the Depression-era partnership between the co-owners of the Whistle Stop Cafe, Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison. The latter relationship is clearly a romantic one; Flagg describes the teenaged Idgie as having a “crush” on Ruth, and Ruth fears that her husband’s abuse stems from him sensing “the love inside she had for Idgie” (192, 195). Whether Ruth and Idgie ever have a physical relationship is less obvious. Although the novel strongly implies that Idgie, in her grief over Ruth’s marriage, slept with Eva Bates, there are no similar scenes featuring Ruth and Idgie, and Flagg never specifies either woman’s sexual orientation.

This ambiguity partly reflects the time and place in which the novel is set. Because society regarded women in the 19th and early 20th centuries as less sexual than men, the lines separating friendship from romance were blurry, and women often lived together for years without public scrutiny. By choosing not to label Idgie and Ruth’s relationship, Flagg may also be underscoring her ideas about the nature of, and need for, strong bonds between women, regardless of whether there’s a sexual element.