Friend zone. Over the past ten years or so, I’ve noticed this term become prevalent in the vocabulary of society. For those who may not know, the “friend zone” is what happens when you are friends with someone you are attracted to and want to go out on dates with/form a tentative relationship with/etc.
This name is a misnomer. If you have a crush, i.e., are attracted to someone with the end goal of forming a relationship, you are already not friends with them. You cannot do both. You are not a good friend if the reason you are nice is to (eventually, even if you may be unaware at the time) get into their pants. It just doesn’t work. You can be friends and date, you can be friends and be in love, you can be friends and be married. You just cannot with a crush. Here is why. All the parts of you that make you a good friend, those qualities and traits that made you loved by all your friends? All of that is funneled into making your crush want you. When there is an endgame like that, the methodology is different and you might not necessarily be behaving as exactly like yourself because the goal is for the crush to like the crushee so therefore the crushee must become more likeable and therefore changes themself (and this opens an entirely other can of worms so we will save this debate for another time).
To say that you have been put into the “friend zone” gives the person that you like authority over your actions, which is completely and totally illogical, not to mention incorrect. Someone has no control over whether you are attracted to them/have a crush on them or not. Sometimes, there will be people who exploit those that have a crush on them, but that only works if they know there is a crush in the works or not.
By using the term “friend zone,” you are shaming the person you like into believing that it is not your fault they don’t like you back but their own which is giving them more control over you than you might actually want to give. It is completely unacceptable to use the term friend zone because of these reasons, but mostly because of the aspect of shame. Shaming someone because they do not like you is wrong and cruel. A person cannot help who they love or do not love and to suggest otherwise means that you are trying to revoke their ability to make choices for themselves and fall in love with whomever they choose to.
It is inexcusable for someone to revoke the agency of others in this way. I propose that we slowly wean out the use of the phrase “friend zone” and all of it’s derivatives that related to someone who has a crush on another person being treated by a friend by this other person. There is a much better term for that: Unrequited Love.
NEXT TIME: We’ll get down to business with what (and what isn’t) Unrequited Love. See you soon!