Love is in the air; not just the red roses and heart eyes kind of love, but platonic relationships and friendships that are your ride or die. Recently, teenagers and the youth are favouring more authentic relationships that are non-romantic and non-sexual. Adolescents are on the lookout for platonic relationships that resonate with their lived experiences, which are more fitting and diverse overall.
Enter platonic love, an appropriate change from riveting romances to diverse and more deeply connective and universally responsive notions. A platonic relationship is a bond in which two people share a close connection, but do not have a sexual relationship. They can even feel love for each other, known as ‘platonic love’.
Plato, an ancient philosopher, from whom this concept originates, believed that platonic love could bring people closer to a divine ideal. However, the modern use of ‘platonic relationship’ or ‘platonic love’ is more about the idea of people being close friends without sexual desire. This term can be characteristic of both opposite-sex and same-sex friendships.
There are many characteristics that differentiate a platonic relationship from a romantic one. With the inclusion of the lack of a sexual connection, a platonic relationship also tends to be defined by closeness, honesty, acceptance, and understanding.
From bromances to female friendships to work spouses, platonic relationships can be important for mental well-being. Research has found that having a support system can play a vital role in mental health. Therefore, creating bonds that include family, friends, co-workers, and other loved ones can be important for your overall wellness.
Even in media and entertainment, the youth are now desiring more significance given to platonic love. According to this year’s ’Teens & Screens’ report from the UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers (CSS), teens, plus the 18-24-year-old demographic that advertisers typically target, think sex and romance are too apparent in TV shows and movies, desiring to see more friendships and platonic relationships.
Labelled as ‘nomance,’ this trend proposes that teenagers prefer more authentic, relatable storylines that are platonic. As revealed in the report, Gen Z’s preferences may come from a desire for open-minded, positive character relationships, especially following the isolation of the pandemic years.
Young people might feel a lack of close companionship, a separation from their community, and an overwhelming feeling that their identity has been replaced digitally rather than feeling a sense of belonging in the tangible, real world.
From the hilarious group from the TV show ‘Friends,’ the iconic detective duo Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Harry and Hermione from ‘Harry Potter,’ to the beloved duo Hawkeye and Black Widow, platonic relationships have no doubt been highly adored.
On a list of this generation’s most disliked stereotypes in media, romantic tropes rank fourth. These stereotypes include plots about relationships being necessary for happiness, male and female leads always ending up together romantically, as well as the clichéd trope of love triangles.
CSS Youth Engagement Manager and one of the authors of the study Stephanie Rivas-Lara says: “There has been a wide-ranging discourse among young people about the meaning of community in the aftermath of Covid-19 and the isolation that came with it.”
Clearly, young people seem to be suffering from a prevalent loneliness and therefore, they seek modelling in the art they consume. While many writers use sex and romance as gateways to develop connections to characters, it’s important to acknowledge that teens and adolescents want stories that explore the full spectrum of relationships.
Although intimacy and romance can express a sense of connection between characters, the entertainment industry must recognise that young adults strive for better, more diverse, and emotional stories.
With frightening headlines about climate change, crises, and global issues, it’s no surprise that adolescents are gravitating towards media as a platform of relatability. They are comfortable in a place where they can belong and wish to remain in a space that is most familiar to them.
While fostering platonic relationships is fairly easy for some, it might not be the same for everyone. Therefore, some things you can do to help create platonic relationships are joining clubs where you can meet people, signing up for workshops or classes on topics that interest you, participating in online communities, and volunteering for causes you care about in your community.
While creating new platonic relationships is great, it’s also important to understand how to maintain the ones you have by having healthy boundaries and being supportive, honest, and empathetic.
The connections we build for ourselves act as our support system every waking moment of our lives. While romance already gets its flowers too often, it’s just as important to celebrate the non-romantic ones.
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