“Emma: What I need is someone who’s going to be in my bed in 2 a.m. who I don’t have to lie to or eat breakfast with.
Adam: I hate breakfast.”- No Strings Attached
This past week, I was at the movies watching the previews when one of the coming attractions caught my eye. The upcoming movie Friends with Benefits starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake is about two 20-somethings who have one way or another been damaged by relationships. The two friends decide to start a no-feelings sexual relationship deciding to not “give into the Hollywood stereotype of true love.” This movie seems to be an enjoyable enough “rom-com” but it is strangely similar to several other movies that have come out recently including “No Strings Attached” starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher and “Love & Other Drugs” starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. With all this media out lately that talks about this topic, it made me think is it possible to have a friendship that crosses the line while remaining strictly friends?
Having grown up in a conservative household, I was raised to believe that hooking up with someone is a special thing, something you save for someone you really care about. But have things changed? Lately, it seems college kids take hooking up less seriously. Love and relationships seem to not be the norm anymore and hooking up and the notion of “friends with benefits” seem to be taking over.
Can “friends-with-benefits” actually work?
In the above movies, the same things always happen. Boy and girl through various ways decide to get into a “no strings attached” agreement. One or both of them end up getting jealous or even attached. And the “no strings attached” agreement just gets complicated.
Just like what occurs in the movies, there are so many complicated issues that come up with just hooking up in college. How do you decide to see each other? Whose house do you go to? Do you tell people? Do you only hookup with each other? What happens when you see each other in public?
In the end, some people can make the friends with benefits thing work and some can’t. It’s just a decision you have to make for yourself.
Wishing you the faith in yourself, the hope for your future and maybe a little bit of love.