Symulowana intymność w relacjach typu friends with benefits
Feigned Intimacy in Friends-with-Benefits Relationships

Summary/Abstract: In biographical narratives of young adults, the prolonging of the process of maturing involves a conscious decision to separate sex life from procreation and marriage. In social sciences, there is a considerable interest in the phenomenon of “hookup culture”, which represents a marked shift towards the acceptance of uncommitted sex among young adults in Western societies. The following article identifies and describes the social construction of friendship with benefits, which is defined as a relationship between cross-sex friends who engage in sexual activity on repeated occasions, but without commitment or romantic feelings. These relationships are considered as one of the short-term pairing strategies, i.e. not associated with plans to form a permanent relationship. The goal of the article is to present the results of a qualitative study based on 42 semi-structured interviews with women and men, aged 27-38, living with their parents in Warsaw. The analysis focuses on the question of the attitude of young adults regarding the friendship with benefits as one of the forms of relations performed by them in intimate relationships. Another aspect is their evaluation of this new dimension of relationships within the environment of their peers.

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