A Casual Relationship, also called Friends With Benefits (FWB), or No Strings Attached (NSA), is a friendship that includes sex, sexual activity, and sexual intimacy, but is not romantic in nature and typically does not have the same degree of expectations, commitments, or investment typically found in a formal romantic relationships. Those in such a relationship consider their bond to be platonic but with occasional casual sex involved.[1] A similar term to this would be breakup-buddies.
A non-sexual casual relationship is know as Friends With Additions (FWA.) These relationships function in which the friends have romantic or tertiary interactions, while simply remaining friends. For example, they may kiss, cuddle, go on dates, and similar, but when the romantic/tertiary acts/moments are over, their relationship reverts back to being purely platonic.
History
The term 'friends with benefits' is speculated to have first been used by Alanis Morissette for her 1995 song “Head over Feet”, although in the original context it seems to refer to a committed relationship rather than a casual relationship. Since then, the term has been used to describe what it is now today.
The term "friends with additions" was coined by Star and Pony Head from Cryptocrew's system on August 29th of 2021.
Flag
The casual relationship flag was coined by Tumblr user Nonmonoprideflags on January 16, 2016. It has no confirmed meaning.[2]
The alternate flag was coined on February 13th of 2021 by Ruthie from Cryptocrew's system. The yellow and orange flower represents forms of platonic bonding and friendship, turqouise represents kindness and respect for one anothers bodies, the shades of browns and tans represent equality and respect amongst races, the orangish-pink in the background represents sexuality, and the dark red represents sexual interaction.