With Thanksgiving right around the corner, and the first snowfall shortly after that, we welcome in a new season. No, it is not fall or winter. It’s cuffing season.
What is cuffing season? (Or “szn,” if you prefer.)
Let me break it down for you. Cuffing is another crazy word created by millennials that has nothing to do with handcuffs. It actually refers to being tied down to another person, as if one is cuffed to another, or in simpler terms, being in a relationship. Memes about this topic are posted frantically on the Internet starting around October. They become more frequent and even more serious in the colder months making you ask yourself as you stalk the Instagram expolre page at 3:37 a.m., “should I be cuffed?”
Urban Dictionary defines this phenomenon as, “During the fall and winter months, people who would normally rather be single or promiscuous find themselves, along with the rest of the world, desiring to be ‘cuffed,’ or tied down by a serious relationship. The cold weather and prolonged indoor activity causes singles to become lonely and desperate to be ‘cuffed.’
Why is this a thing?
From my understanding, cuffing season reflects the idea that you want someone to cuddle up with by the fire during the cold and harsh winters most of us experience. Maybe it would be nice to finally tell your pestering grandma that you have a boyfriend after a long life of being single. According to Glamour Magazine, cuffing season occurs because people would rather be huddled under blankets at home with someone special as opposed to going out and facing the cold. I guess watching Netflix alone could get boring after a while.
Many see this as a joke, making stabs at friends when they hook up with someone in November, telling them they are “cuffed.” But according to an article on DailyMail.com, “scientists say that colder weather can affect our brains and therefore influence the way people date.” This might be encouraging us to find someone we can share the winter months with.
Thus, we have figured it out. Cuffing season is real and there is a scientific reason to want to make-out with only one person for the three-month span. The gloomy skies and freezing temperatures actually force our brains to think we want a significant other. This epidemic goes deeper than Instagram memes, and there is proof that more of the world is in relationships from November to February. This seems unnatural for us millennials, so enthralled with the normality of our hookup culture, but it is always nice to try something new, even if you do get sick of this person by the time you see green on the trees again.
Now, we must embrace the reality of this situation and go after our desire to cuff someone for a few months. It will likely make our extra-long winter break a little more bearable, and it’s nice to have someone to care about when you’re not thinking about school or other stressful events that happen during the year. So take a chance, find a guy or girl you’ve had your eye on, and go for it. Who knows, maybe he or she will make Netflix binging more fun, and maybe you’ll actually do some of those cute, couply, Instagram-worthy winter activities for the first time in your life (gag). And hey, you might like it. Let this cuffing season be a time to explore your sexuality, relationship preferences and fall in love.