Is Summer the New Cuffing Season?

Written by Parris Walters aka ‘the Black Carrie Bradshaw’

Illustration by Tyler Misha

The weather is warmer, days are longer and the prospects of meeting the right one might just be getting better.

What I am about to say goes against a lot of what we have previously heard about cuffing season. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, please refer to the Urban Dictionary:

Ah, cuffing season… what often springs to mind is that feeling of wanting a bit more affection and energy than your casual situationships can offer. That time of year where the temperature plummets, months seem to blur together and everything is pumpkin spice scented.

All of this can have us feeling a bit more single than usual and frantically worrying whether we will make it to ‘the final round of cuffing season’, i.e. putting ourselves on the brink of bankruptcy at Winter Wonderful, freezing our tits off and basking in the LED lights of some pseudo German Christmas market.

Ditch the frost bite and the worries about whether it’s too soon to buy Christmas presents for your man who isn’t your man yet. Today is a day of abandoning social norms and I’m here to tell you why summer just might be the new cuffing season.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Think about all the events, concerts and festivals that happen during the summer – all perfectly acceptable places to meet new people and ideal places for a potential connection. These environments are often filled with good vibes and people you wouldn’t necessarily come across in your normal day-to-day life, allowing you to flirt outside of your comfort zone.

I could sit here and attempt to argue against all the scientific evidence that supports the notion that relationships are for the winter but instead I’ll just ask, why limit ourselves? Why should relationships be reserved solely for the colder months and somehow coincide with the holidays that we often use to validate our personal relationships to others?

The point of suggesting that we could make and find genuine connections outside the confines of winter is important as it helps us to challenge the concept itself. Cuffing season is kind of bullsh*t and suggests that we seek short-lived intimacy and affection for selfish and superficial reasons.

The reason that this season occurs in the summer is because it is seen as more socially acceptable to be single. There isn’t the pressure of events like Christmas, New Years and Valentine’s Day, events that usually involve the gathering of families, questions about our achievements from said families and for those who are alone – a greater sense of loneliness. 

Moral of the story: don’t let society or Urban Dictionary dictate when you should be single or when you should be cuffed. Only you can decide that.