<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Nobody likes the &amp;amp;#8220;friend zone.&amp;amp;#8221; But, if you think about the words themselves, it should be like, &amp;amp;#8220;Friend zone?! Let&amp;amp;#8217;s go there immediately and stay FOREVER!!&amp;amp;#8221; I hope you&amp;amp;#8217;ll join me on this crusade for semantic justice. It&amp;amp;#8217;s time to redefine the &amp;amp;#8220;friend zone.&amp;amp;#8221; First of all, &amp;amp;#8220;friend zone&amp;amp;#8221; is a misnomer. It takes two to tango&amp;amp;#8212;and by &amp;amp;#8220;tango,&amp;amp;#8221; I mean &amp;amp;#8220;be friends&amp;amp;#8221;&amp;amp;#8212;which there aren&amp;amp;#8217;t, because the person relegated to the friend zone has no real interest in being just friends. Maybe a more accurate term, then, is the &amp;amp;#8220;no zone&amp;amp;#8221; or, your bad-pun filter is off, the &amp;amp;#8220;no-zone layer.&amp;amp;#8221; Better yet, from now on, maybe the &amp;amp;#8220;friend zone&amp;amp;#8221; is just the &amp;amp;#8220;end zone.&amp;amp;#8221; Move over, football. In the meantime, I&amp;amp;#8217;m regaining control of the phrase instead of succumbing to the cultural and etymological aftermath of the Friends episode that potentially started it all. Think about it: &amp;amp;#8220;Friend zone&amp;amp;#8221; takes words that are inherently positive and inverts them to reference one of the most miserable places ever. That&amp;amp;#8217;s why I&amp;amp;#8217;m determined to stop using the phrase in a negative romantic context. I hope in the future &amp;amp;#8220;friend zone&amp;amp;#8221; will refer to one if not all of the following: The Friendzone!: a family entertainment center filled with elaborate padded indoor mazes, at least one ball pit, a roller rink, and potentially a laser tag arena. As in, &amp;amp;#8220;I hope I get invited to Jackie&amp;amp;#8217;s birthday party at The Friendzone!&amp;amp;#8221; The Friendzone: an inclusive and tolerant afterschool program for LGBT and otherwise marginalized youth that offers tutoring and opportunities for field trips, art projects, and musical theater. &amp;amp;#8220;As in, please join us this weekend at The Friendzone for a gender-blind rendition of Mamma Mia!&amp;amp;#8221; The Friend Zone: a weekly daytime gardening show on Lifetime, because wouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t it be kind of adorable and strangely appropriate for elderly horticulture enthusiasts to refer to their friends and their plants as friends? &amp;amp;#8220;As in, this week on The Friend Zone, we&amp;amp;#8217;ll discuss which perennials grow best in the shade. Plus, Ina Garten stops by with a new recipe for mojito lemonade!&amp;amp;#8221; &amp;amp;#8220;The Friend Zone&amp;amp;#8221;: an upbeat, folksy song by children&amp;amp;#8217;s singer-songwriter Raffi, about how to play with your peers while using appropriate touch and respecting personal space. As in, &amp;amp;#8220;In the &amp;amp;#8216;friend zone,&amp;amp;#8217; / yes means yes / In the &amp;amp;#8216;friend zone&amp;amp;#8217; / no means no.&amp;amp;#8221; The Friend Zone: a nondenominational sleep-away camp that hosts teens from warring nations for an eight-week summer intensive emphasizing tolerance, diplomacy and, of course, the importance of trust falls. As in, &amp;amp;#8220;My favorite part of The Friend Zone was learning that cross-cultural dialogue can lead to a lasting peace. Oh, and the high ropes course!&amp;amp;#8221; Or, if none of these, at least the name of my apartment. As in, &amp;amp;#8220;Everyone is welcome for drinks tomorrow night in the friend zone!&amp;amp;#8221; Do you agree that we should stop using the &amp;amp;#8220;friend zone&amp;amp;#8221;? Have any more accurate alternatives for what to call it? Any other romantic terms you think we should redefine? Photo: Getty Images via NBC"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2013/02/whats-in-a-name-redefining-the>