Friday, February 8, 2013

The Friend Zone: A Men's Only Land?

    In this video by CollegeHumor, Eve and Adam seem to have some chemistry in the beginning. Adam takes this as a sign, but his advances are shut down by Eve. She makes up excuses as to why she can't be with him, and goes on a date with the serpent. Ha ha. Adam has been put into the infamous Friend Zone.
The "Friend Zone'' is a term that describes when a guy likes a girl, and they are close, but she would never want anything more than a friendship with him.
    You would almost never hear of a girl being put in the Friend Zone. When I argued my guy friends about the fact that a girl can definitely be put in the Friend Zone, they laughed at me and denied all my arguments. Sexism is definitely present here.
    My reaction when I saw this video was laughter followed by me saying, "Any guy who sees this can probably relate so well." Guys believe that they are constantly being put in the Friend Zone by girls they like. In that moment, sexism is present because it gives them the sense that most girls use guys to have them as friends and talk about stuff they can't talk about to their girl friends. It's a stereotype against women. However, it's not true in most cases, because women don't always want the guy to only be their friend, and we can and have been put into this dreaded place.

If you told a guy that, they wouldn't believe it.

    A Chicago Tribune writer writes about the Friend Zone and describes it as: "When a guy agrees to be friends, he's forced to stifle his attraction while regularly seeing and talking to the woman he's attracted to. She discusses her love life and has the audacity to ask his advice on it. He performs occasional 'manly' household and automotive favors for the women. Essentially, he does everything a boyfriend would do – without the benefits."
     Notice the word choice in this excerpt. It speaks about the male being shut down by the female. Males have this idea that it's all the woman's fault. They think that there's no possible way that a girl can be put in the Friend Zone; women are the bad guys.

What do you think? Is the Friend Zone a "Men's Only" Land? Or do women roam around in there too?
    

3 comments:

  1. This video was so funny! It is the typical stereotype of how girls put guys in the friend zone. I definitely agree with you on how people think that men can only be put in the "friend zone". I also agree with you that women CAN be put into it as well. I don't get how people can think only guys can be put there. There are so many instances where the girl has stronger feelings, but she has to put them aside because she's only friends with the guy. For instance, in the tv show Friends, Rachel is put into the Friend zone many times by Ross. I mean Ross is put there by Rachel as well, but this example just shows how women can put in the friend zone. This "zone" is not only for guys; women can definitely be put there too.

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  2. That video was actually really funny! I think there definitely is sexism in the whole "friend zone" thing. I agree that girls can be put into the friend zone too. I know tons of girls who like a guy and they're really close, but the guy doesn't want to date her and just wants to be friends. I think guys are just too proud and they don't want to admit they actually do friend zone girls. They'd rather play the victim. I think it's really annoying that guys think girls can't be friend zoned, because we actually are friend zoned all the time. And I love that Friends reference in that comment because it is so true! Rachel was friend zoned A LOT by Ross, and it just shows girls can be friend zoned too. This was a really interesting post, by the way!

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  3. Thanks guy! I see it all the time. Giuliana and Shannon- you're both so right. There are plenty of girls in the friend zone! We see it especially because we go to an all-girls school and we talk to girls 5 days a week for 4 years straight. "Friends" the TV show is where the term "friend zone" originated so you guys totally get it.

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