Eliminating the "Friend Zone"

By Casey Jacobson on March 18, 2015

In this generation, men of all ages have been finding themselves being led into a dreaded, gruesome place by the name of “the friend zone.” This so-called friend zone is a place where men are brutally captured by women who —you guessed it — don’t want to have anything but a friendship. Yes, you did indeed hear me correctly, that means absolutely no room for anything other than platonic encounters. Figuring out how to escape this feared friend zone has sparked interest all over the Internet and among college campuses across the nation, creating a desperate need for relationship advice to help the suffering victims. This is my proposition to all the victims out there on why the friend zone falls under under one of the most sexist and useless terms used among our peers, and why we should work to rid of it altogether.

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When thinking about the “friend zone,” it seems to be completely gender-inclusive, although in reality this term is usually used for men who are consistently whining when their nice gestures aren’t resulting in sexual favors. Over and over again, I read Internet feeds on social media like Twitter, and come across conversations in the library about how their latest attempt at being a “nice guy” hasn’t gotten them a one-way ticket straight between the sheets. God forbid that when a girl invites you over to watch the new Anchorman movie, you actually just sit there and watch the movie. Playing the part of the sympathetic, sophisticated guy for the sole purpose of getting in a girl’s pants pretty much just makes you insensitive and quite frankly, just plain scummy. This is far worse than the classic misogynistic prick, at least it’s known what to expect from people like that. Acts of kindness just for the sake of being kind should not be an original and shocking suggestion. The fact that you think you are owed something for not being a jerk is one hundred percent a reason to call you one.

Not only is the term inherently sexist, but the friend zone puts some sort of horrifying stigma on males and females being solely friends. The friend zone is consistently plaguing both men and women that any sort of platonic relationship is not only something to be avoided, but also feared. If two people of the opposite sex have a great friendship, should it be put to an end just because intimacy isn’t part of it? Even if one person felt sexually attracted to the other but the feelings weren’t reciprocated, it seems like a pretty ludicrous reason to put a bomb on the entire existing friendship. Relationships and friendships are a two-way street. If you’re just friends or more than friends, effort is going to have to be put in place in order to maintain it and keep everything healthy. Friendship is the foundation to any relationship in the first place – it’s absurd to expect some sort of physical reward for putting in that effort, regardless.

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