Do we have any evidence from the Quran and/or Sunnah directly supporting being friends, freemixing and/or socializing with opposite gender is forbidden?

So let me start off by saying I don’t follow a madhab in particular, although I think I’m shafi’i I mean I just follow my local sheikh.

But when I say haram, I mean OBJECTIVELY haram, like with the Quran and/or Sunnah directly stating that it is? Doesn’t have to be word for word. What we do know is that opposite gender non mahrams cannot be physically alone together privately, as shaitan is the 3rd, we have to lower our gaze, and we have to stay away from Zina. And that’s the thing, most people think that being friends = Zina when this is just an assumption. I think there’s a whole world between having a respectful and mature friendship with the opposite gender and actually commiting Zina. It’s like many people look at the opposite genders as aliens, and that is very misogynistic.

I feel like if a man and woman are truly weak and don’t have any integrity they’d let that happen. We’re not robots, we have self control and we shouldn’t automatically be aroused by being in an environment where opposite genders are present. Logically we cannot say “it’s haram to be friends with opposite gender non mahrams because it can lead to xyz…” because it has a flaw, anything can lead up xyz, if you’re an environment where it feels more likely then that’s all self-control, like going to the mall, a restaurant, etc it has all these interactions. It has logical flaws and assumes that Muslims have zero self control which is not true.

Let me give 3 important reasons why I ask this:

1. Back then, the prophet (PBUH) would have women companions who would interact with him. The Hadith literature is filled with examples of casual, voluntary, and socially integrated interactions. If it was super important/emergency only, it would have been subtitle enforced and stated.

2. Muslim Student Associations (MSA’s) at university have general freemixing, they are respectful interactions with each other, and have boundaries. No man is friends with a woman the way they are friends with a man, and no woman is friends with a man the way they are friends with a woman. This is extremely common within many Muslim populated schools and universities, so if this was truly haram, wouldn’t the overwhelming majority of MSA’s enforce this? And if you wanna make the argument that they’re ignorant or don’t know, I mean many scholars and chaplains can be acquainted with MSA’s, and as I said there’s an overwhelming amount of MSA’s that have freemixing, wouldn’t a lot have all KNOWN by now?

3. The opinion within scholars is subjective. As I said before i don’t specifically follow a madhab I just go off of Quran, Sunnah, and the sheikh at my local masjid who’s extremely respectful and intelligent. If my scholar makes a statement that actually makes sense and there is supporting evidence behind it (which he always does), I follow it. I asked my scholar this question too, he says it’s a gray area which I agree on and logically is true just based off how humans are, what society has become and our environments, so although it isn’t objectively haram he advises to stay away from it and I agree with it. If I have daughters one day, I’d never encourage them to have guy friends and I would tell them to stay away either.