Temperatures may be rising, but don’t kid yourself. In Canada and many other northern countries, the winter season isn’t quite over yet. That means we’re still in cuffing season.

No, this isn’t a new S&M trend involving handcuffs. The Urban Dictionary defines “cuffing” as a certain time of the year, when:

…people who would rather be single or promiscuous find themselves, along with the rest of the world, desiring to be tied down by a serious relationship.

When the Cold Comes A-Calling

Though Laurie Rudder, a second-year college student, has been in a relationship for almost two years, she says her friends always talk about their desire to be tied down to a relationship when it’s cold.

“A lot of my girlfriends say they find themselves wanting a boyfriend in the winter,” Rudder, who is 19, says.

So what is cuffing? In plain terms, you find a mate for the fall and winter months, because it’s too cold to do anything other than stay inside and cuddle. The kicker is that it isn’t someone who’s intended to last beyond those months.

This isn’t Valentine’s Day folks. This is cuffing season!

Millennial Phenomenon?

Many might want to call this a millennial phenomenon, but it’s been around a lot longer than most people might think.

According to Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory, individuals with maladaptive behaviours – like walking around alone in the dead of winter – were less likely to survive in the cold and have kids; so their genes didn’t pass on to the next generation.

If you extend Darwin’s theory, it points to an evolutionary history in which people who coupled up in the winter had better survival rates; and as a result, more babies. Though having babies isn’t the exact goal of cuffing season in today’s world, you get the point.

A Word from the Relationship Experts

According to Nicole McCance, a Toronto-based psychologist and relationship expert, cuffing season comes around every year.

“I think it’s innately human to want to curl up and kind of hibernate with somebody,” says McCance, who has been working with clients for ten years. “Animals do it too, so it kind of makes sense to me why we do it.”

Although humans do not have a mating season like other species, the colder temperatures do affect how we couple. When the temperature drops, we attend fewer events, therefore we see fewer people.

This limits our dating and sex pools and, during those cold months, and encourages the strong human desire to hook-up with anything that moves.

Netflix & Chill…

Other than sex, cuffing season involves many indoor activities, like Netflix and Chill, which became a prominent staple of cuffing season as of 2015.

Often associated with millennials, Netflix and Chill is a date to watch a movie or television show in privacy. The subtext is sex. There is even an app for it.

TikiTalk was created in 2015. Users can click a button that will send a message reading “Netflix and chill?” to another user, and if they accept, it opens up a chat.  

Like cuffing season, Netflix and chill has become code for casual sex.

The Role of Dating Apps

TikiTalk plays a role in cuffing season, but so do dating apps like Tinder and Plenty of Fish.

According to a report on Tinder’s website, cold weather brings them the most business. During a bad snowstorm, the app can see up to 10 million matches in the areas badly affected.

OkCupid, another online dating site, reported a 34 percent increase in exchanged messages during bad weather.

Laurie Rudder says these dating apps may play a bigger part in this phenomenon than people think. “It’s a millennial trend maybe because of  things like Tinder,” she says. “Young people think relationships are more disposable – like they can easily find another.”

Gender Variations

But how does this vary by gender?

In 2015, Hinge, a dating app that uses a “romance graph” to pair users with friends of friends who fit your style, polled 1,000 active users. They asked which months they are most interested in a casual hookup, date or relationship.

The survey found men are 15 per cent more likely to be looking for something serious in the winter than in any other season. Women are only 5 per cent more interested in a relationship during those cold months.

In the spring and summer, men are 11 per cent less likely to want to settle down, whereas women are 5 per cent less likely. 

Rudder says her female friends are more likely to stay away from commitment in the warmer months. “They want to be single to party in the summer,” Rudder says.

How to Cuff!

So how does one cuff onto another? It’s as easy as hooking up, but requires a bit more maintenance.

McCance, who holds multiple degrees, including an M.A in Counselling Psychology from the University of Toronto, says communication is vital when it comes to cuffing.

“It’s really key to share your expectations and be really clear that this is short term,” McCance says.

But not everyone agrees with this trend. Hayley Hertner, a first-year Emergency Services student, says she think this concept is ridiculous. “I don’t understand why this is a thing,” Hertner says.

Though Hertner admits she has heard of this trend, she doesn’t believe in the cuff. “I think it’s more of an aspiration or a joke,” she says.

Fact or Fiction?

Hertner may not be the only one who takes this as a joke. The internet is filled with memes mocking cuffing season.

Game of Thrones character, Eddard Stark, who usually warns us that “winter is coming”, now warns us to “brace ourselves, cuffing season is coming”.

 

 

And then there’s the famous Liam Neeson scene from the 2008 film Taken that reads, “I will look for you, I will find you, and I will cuff you!!!” 

 

These memes all over our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, remind us how serious the thirst is for human companionship around this time of year.

But like winter, soon that thirst will thaw out. The big question at that point is: after the thaw, when you find yourself “stuck” with the person you’ve been with for a few months, what’s next?

When the Ice Melts

McCance, whose relationship expertise has been featured on shows like The Social, Global News, and City TV, says it is important to keep in mind those looking for a cuff are often just suppressing their loneliness.

“These people are not looking for the one or their soul mate,” McCance says. “They are just looking for somebody who strictly makes sense for them right now.”

It’s important for both people to be on the same page, especially when it comes to removing the cuffs. Maybe you’re both in this for the long haul, or maybe you both want to end things before the summer season begins.

But with Valentine’s Day over, cuffing season is melting away as slowly as the stubborn pile of snow in your driveway.

Whether you emerged victorious with a Tinder cuff in tow, or you kept warm this winter all on your own, the good news is: soon you will be able to shed your heating blanket for your short-shorts.

Why? Because with the warmer weather comes a new sex cycle: the summer fling.

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About the Author

Nicole O‘Brien is in her final year of college, where she studies journalism. She has a strong passion for entertainment news, pop culture and everything that is celebrity. You can find more of her posts on Godigio and Here For Your Entertainment.

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This post is the first March submission for the Monthly College Mate Writing Contest.