The Friend Zone gets a logo
- Published
"You're such a good friend."
Perhaps the most painful five words that someone with whom you want so much more, can say to you. It means somewhere during the meandering road of your (probably one-sided) flirting, you took a wrong turn and ended up in the dead-end that is 'the Friend Zone'.
When the object of your unrequited romantic attention has banished you to a platonic hinterland, you would be forgiven for thinking there was something hideously wrong with you. But fear not, you're not alone.
A kind internet citizen has now come up with a logo so that you can identify your fellow castaway brethren. The logo, which shows one hand shaped like a half-heart and the other as a thumbs up, was posted by user Dro2614, external on Reddit. It was viewed more than two million times in less that 15 hours on IMGUR, external.
"We're watching the birth of a legend. Potentially this will soon become an emoji," one person commented.
However, the logo appears to have actually been made on the FinoFilipino.org website and was inspired in some way by a tweet of the photo of the two people, external that appears at the top of this page.
It could be argued that official recognition of the Friend Zone, that most miserable of predicaments, is long overdue. Ever since Joey referred to a lovesick Ross as the "Mayor of Friend Zone" in a 1994 episode of Friends, external, the term has taken on a life of its own.
There have been numerous memes, external.
And plenty of advice, external on how to advance out of the zone.
However, the flippant use of the term has also been criticised, external as being essentially misogynistic in tone and promoting the notions that some women lead men on for attention, external, men only hang around with women on the off-chance of obtaining sex and that the two sexes cannot be platonic friends.
"I get it, unrequited love sucks, but the friendzone is so steeped in this sense of entitlement and anger," one person commented under the new logo.
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