It is a great time to be an American. While ICE is arresting and deporting migrants, the Trump Administration is dominating on every front, and the best time of the year, fall and winter, is coming around for the holidays. As frost chills our windows near Christmas, we gather around bonfires, holiday lights flicker across the nation, and we celebrate Christ's birth.
It is winter time in America. Many young Americans see this season as a time to bond with their families, enjoy some football, attend high school games, and watch classic Christmas movies with the people they love the most. Unfortunately, there is another tradition that is overwhelming young men in our nation in the worst possible way: cuffing season.
Human Events Senior Editor Jack Posobiec put it best when he posted on X, "Cuffing season is that magical time of year when girl who swore they were 'focusing on themselves' suddenly start hunting for a temporary winter boo like they're assembling a survival kit. She will be gone as soon as spring comes Do NOT get cuffed, young kings Stay frosty!" Jack is spot on here, and young men need to take notice.
For those unfamiliar, "cuffing season" runs from right after Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Year, conveniently ending around Valentine's Day. During this time, young women often seek temporary relationships with vulnerable men, offering companionship with dates like hot chocolate, Netflix, and matching pajamas, but without long-term intentions.
All of this comes with basically no strings attached, solely a connection with no intention of becoming a marriage or a long-lasting relationship, and is a social, braggadocios strategy to placate social media followers far more than anything romantic. All "cuffing season" stands for is a human hot water bottle utilized to thaw out these young women's isolation when it is cold, and used to make their friends, who do not have a confused cuffed young man, jealous.
"Cuffing season" is based on similar principles to hook-up culture, as its seasonal cousin. Social media has made this even worse, with dating apps like Tinder spiking in usage and popularity during the winter and fall, and your Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat apps riddled with temporary relationships you will forget existed by March. This term is among the most harmful to young men's confidence, as it can lead them to seek false companionship and succumb to the pressure society puts on them.
Hook-up culture has reduced the commonality of marriage and long-lasting relationships to the point where it has eroded American culture and our thoughts about commitment, and "cuffing season" has made it acceptable for women to poach young men for the purpose of posting on their social media for clout. Men are being emasculated for the purpose of attention-seeking women getting to brag to their friends that they went to see Christmas lights or buy matching ugly Christmas sweaters with a dude whose name they will not remember come next summer, when complete debauchery could be on full display.
Christmas time and the holiday season should be a time to build lasting bonds with loved ones and foster hope for meaningful relationships that endure beyond social media trends.
Relationships are not temporary utilities, and Christmas time is not dedicated to boosting the egos of isolated young women who attempt to prey on young men. This time of year should be devoted to couples in relationships primed to marry, as they come together to celebrate the holiday season.
The holiday season should be grounded in family, not hook-up culture. Both 'cuffing season' and hook-up culture result in the same outcome: depressed expectations, the inability to turn into a marriage, and attention for social (media) clout.
Do not get cuffed, young kings. You are not a seasonal thermostat to be used and discarded; instead, embrace your strength and focus on meaningful connections this Christmas.
"Cuffing season" should die this winter and be phased out, like the pumpkin spice latte, after the fall.
The relationships that will last for young people will not come about because they want to post on Instagram or Snapchat, but because they want to be together in God's image.
Stay frosty, all, and stay away from "cuffing season" for good.
