The Problem With The Phrase "Netflix and Chill"
There are memes all over the Internet about it. You'll find the phrase on Tinder and Yik Yak. Step onto a college campus during the weekend, and you’ll hear it in over-abundance: "Netflix and chill."
It usually goes like this: two people, who are most likely interested in each other, will begin talking. They may discuss things that’ll be going on later that night. One of them will say that they aren’t doing anything, except maybe hanging out in their dorm. The other, who is trying to downplay how much they’d just like to see the other one alone, will smile and suggest that they hang out together. Someone will suggest watching a movie or something on Netflix. A plan will be set.
Flash forward several hours, and the lights will be out, clothes on the floor, with Netflix playing somewhere in the background.
Boom. That’s "Netflix and chill". Or, you know, just two college kids having a little fun.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing with this scenario; college is some of the best years we’ll have. A lot of things that are said and done outside the classroom are dismissed because “it’s college.” We’re at a point in our lives where we act childish and immature, but branded with the label of being an 'adult’ because almost all of us are over eighteen, with the small percentage of those who are over twenty-one. We spend Thursday nights partying late into the night, and wake up just a few hours later to go to work. It’s this back-and-forth behavior that causes most people attach the stigma to “college kids.”
Now, where does “Netflix and chill” tie into all of this? It all has to do with the phrase itself. Everyone knows that “let’s hang out together and watch Netflix” is code for “come over to my dorm tonight so that we can have sex.”
So why not just be up-front with whoever you want to sleep with and actually ask for it? Hiding your true intentions behind something that others might interpret as innocent seems a little deceitful. When asking someone if they want to hang out and watch Netflix, the other person could sincerely believe that that’s all that will be happening later that night: they could be thrown completely off guard when the person who issued the invitation makes a move; they could have legitimately thought that it would be a night of two friends hanging out together, or even a stay-at-home movie date.
Sex might have been something that never even crossed their minds. Things could get awkward.
It's because of this that there's a problem with the phrase "Netflix and chill": it might not be universally understood by everyone. The phrase is misleading and is something dirty disguised as something innocent.
We should all just be clear about what we want with who we want it from. It eliminates any confusion, and makes the night that much better. And isn't that what everyone wants?
