The Curse of the Fuck Buddy

The quintessential fuck buddy or FWB (as in friends with benefits). Everybody has one these days, don't you think? I had two in the VERY distant past and I seem to have no problem with the arrangement. In fact I immensely enjoyed them.

But guess what the New York Times says about it?

Yet relationships in which close friends begin having sex come with their own brand of awkwardness, according to the first study to explore the dynamics of such pairs, often called friends with benefits, or F.W.B..

The relationships tend to have little romantic passion, but stir the same fears that stalk lovers: namely, that one person will fall harder than the other.

Paradoxically, and perhaps predictably, the study suggests, these physical friendships often occlude one of the emotional arteries of real friendship, openness. Friends who could once talk about anything now have an unstated taboo topic — the relationship itself. In every conversation, there is innuendo; in every room, an elephant.

You can read the full article here.

I think I have a blossoming FWB. And it appears that the above article is getting very true to me, especially the walking-on-eggshells feeling. Whew, stressful.