Casual relationship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

Close relationships

Affinity • Attachment • Bonding • Boyfriend • Casual • Cohabitation • Compersion • Concubinage • Consort • Courtship • Divorce • Domestic partnership • Dower, dowry, and bride price • Family • Friendship • Girlfriend • Husband • Infatuation • Intimacy • Jealousy • Limerence • Love • Marriage • Monogamy • Nonmonogamy • Passion • Pederasty • Platonic love • Polyamory • Polyfidelity • Polygamy • Psychology of monogamy • Relationship abuse • Romance • Separation • Sexuality • Serial monogamy • Sexual orientation • Significant other • Soulmate • Wedding • Widowhood • Wife
This box: view • talk • edit

Casual relationship is a term used to describe the physical and emotional relationship between two people who may have a sexual relationship or a near-sexual relationship without necessarily demanding or expecting a more formal relationship as a goal. It is more than just casual sex and different from a one-night stand. Related terms are "pals with privileges", "cut friends", an "extended hookup", a "fling", "friends with benefits", "friends with privileges", "bene-friends", "sex buddies" and a "sexualized friendship". There are significant gender and cultural differences in acceptance of and breadth of casual relationships,^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] as well as in regrets about action/inaction in those relationships.^[5]

A casual relationship may be part time, or for a limited time, and may or may not be monogamous. The term encompasses friendships between people who enjoy each other's physical intimacy but do not aspire to be long-term, and may or may not involve parties who desire temporary relationships purely for hedonistic purposes. In each case, the relationship's dominance in the lives of those involved is being voluntarily limited, and there is usually a sense that the relationship is intended to endure only so long as both parties wish it to.

To the extent such relationship include casual sexual contact, the relationship is generally focused on fulfilling sexual rather than romantic or emotional needs.

Motives for casual relationships vary, and should be distinguished from casual sex, which is a specific type of casual relationship. Casual relationships sometimes include mutual support, affection and enjoyment, which underpin other forms of loving relationship.

1 More than working relationship less than monogamy
2 Casual sex
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] More than working relationship less than monogamy

This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

Although this sort of relationship is often portrayed as a relatively new phenomenon, the phrase "friends with benefits" was around for many years before it was popularized for a younger generation in the mid-1990s by the Alanis Morissette song "Head Over Feet" and a decade later in the television series Boston Legal.

The television series Sex and the City focused further on casual sexual relationships. The intent of a casual relationship can vary: sometimes to relieve sexual frustrations and other times simply as a friendship or part-time relationship, which includes sexual activity when wished. Usually a casual relationship is not intended as a monogamous relationship. It is also not always synonymous with casual sex, since it might even not include sex.

Sometimes both parties are free to date and engage in sex acts with other persons, however, others choose to have exclusive casual relationships. These types of relationships effectively give an outlet for sexual and intimacy needs without the potential stress and time-demands of a committed relationship. Two people may elect to become friends with benefits because they are unwilling to commit to a full-fledged relationship or long term relationship for whatever reason.

This arrangement is common among young professionals, who put a lot of time into work and therefore do not have time for a boyfriend or girlfriend.^{[citation needed]}

These relationships are associated with younger people (early teenagers), and are often seen as a way to enjoy the benefits of sexual activities without the emotional strings of a romantic relationship. According to many teens, these relationships have been going on for some time, and it is estimated that at least 32% of people over 13 have had such an experience, despite limitations due to age of consent laws.^{[citation needed]} While providing a sexual outlet for some people, the practice is still associated with negative connotations. In teenage relationships in the US, the predominant activity is not penetrative sex, but rather oral sex and mutual masturbation. Many teenagers believe that this reduces the risks associated with sexual promiscuity such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Some medical authorities such as Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a professor of pediatrics, suggests that teenagers do not view oral sex as "real sex" and use it to remain in a state of "technical" virginity.^[6]

[edit] Casual sex

Main article: Casual sex

Casual sex refers to certain types of sexual activity outside the context of a romantic relationship. The term is not always used consistently: some use it to refer to any extramarital sex, some use it to refer to sex in a casual relationship.^[7]^[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Chara PJ Jr, Kuennen LM. Psychol Rep. 1994 Feb 74(1):57-8. Diverging gender attitudes regarding casual sex: a cross-sectional study. Abstract: Students at five educational levels ranging from seventh graders to college seniors were surveyed regarding their attitudes about the acceptability of casual sex. A striking developmental contrast was found: males became increasingly accepting of casual sex; females were consistently opposed to casual sex at all educational levels'. May 25, 2007
^ Lisa A. Cubbins & Koray Tanfer The Influence of Gender on Sex: A Study of Men's and Women's Self-Reported High-Risk Sex Behavior Archives of Sexual Behavior
^ CM Grello, DP Welsh, MS Harper 'No Strings Attached: The Nature of Casual Sex in College Students' The Journal of Sex Research, 2006.
^ Gwen J. Broude, 'Male-Female Relationships in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Study of Sex and Intimacy' Cross-Cultural Research, Vol. 18, No. 2, 154-181 (1983) Abstract: Societies are neither entirely consistent nor entirely arbitrary in their patterning of heterosexual relationships. This research suggests that sexual relationships, nonsexual intimacy, and male sexual orientation are not highly related to each other.
^ Roese, NJ 'Sex Differences in Regret: All For Love or Some For Lust?' Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 6, 770-780 (2006) Abstract: within romantic relationships, men emphasize regrets of inaction over action, whereas women report regrets of inaction and action with equivalent frequency. Sex differences were not evident in other interpersonal regrets (friendship, parental, sibling interactions) and were not moderated by relationship status
^ Halpern-Fisher B University of California at San Francisco [1]
^ casual - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
^ casual sex - Definitions from Dictionary.com