Understanding The Freckling Dating Trend

The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson famously said, “In the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”

Today's version might be a little more prosaic -- something along the lines of, when it gets warmer, f*ckboys are more likely to catcall -- but potato, pot-ah-to.

The question of how the seasons affect our moods (particularly, our romantic moods) is one with a long history.

For who hasn't heard of the infamous summer fling? And, in recent years, cuffing season -- when people use the fall to find someone to shack up with more seriously over the winter -- has gained a lot of traction.

Which raises the question -- is there a spring/summer version of cuffing season? And if so, what might it look like? That's why AskMen is proposing the adoption of a new slang term into our collective dating lexicon -- freckling.

For those of us lucky enough to have them, freckles and their fickle nature are a familiar subject. Your skin might be clear as day from November through to March, but once you start spending more time in the sun, boom, a star map of little dots constellates across your face, only to fade when fall comes around.

The dating analog, of course, is the freckler -- someone who dips into your life when the weather’s nice and then vanishes, vamoose, when the chill sets in.

Unlike a summer fling, a passion-filled romance with someone you just met that only lasts for the summer, if you’re getting freckled, it’s often at the hands of someone you already know -- or know through friends, or friends of friends.

Someone who, rather than coming out of nowhere and then disappearing forever, is happy to come from and then return to the periphery of your life, not staying, but not exactly leaving, either, just going dark for the colder months, potentially cuffed with someone else entirely -- though only a fool would be surprised to get a “wyd?” text from them next Memorial Day weekend.

The existence of freckling is a confluence of sorts from two realities: one, that summer (and, if we’re being honest, late spring) is the horniest time of the year, and two, that people’s social circles are wider, denser and more robust than ever thanks to social media and the digital web we’re all trapped like flies in.

Last year, for instance, data from the popular online dating site Zoosk showed that women are most likely to respond to messages towards the end of the summer. The popular online dating site combed through its 40 million users and revealed that July and August are the second most popular times of the year to meet women on online dating sites. August is also great for another reason: Women are more likely to sign up to online dating sites and apps for the first time, and that means they won't likely be as jaded from bad dates, crass openers and unrequited dick pics.

So that cutie you met at a rager a year or two back and randomly added on Snapchat who’s been liking your Instagram posts with a surprising steadiness -- a generation ago would simply disappear from your life to remain a complete stranger, about whose life, interests and relationship status you knew zero.

But today, without ever seeing each other in person again, you’re 100% up to speed, so when the DM slide happens, you can turn it into a one-night stand (or half-night stand) in less time than it would take previous-generation You to type up and mail a letter.

Mix that level of never-gonna-give-you-up-ness we all have for any attractive person we’ve ever met with the undeniable randiness of the warmer months -- think beach bods, day drinking, and wearing bathing suits as clothing, as all the pent-up winter frustrations get let loose in a months-long pseudo-orgy of sweat, heat and pounding beats -- and you’ve got a recipe for horny randos dropping into your life, primed and hookup-ready.

How do you tell if a budding summer romance is the real deal or just a freckle that’ll fade away in a few months? Unfortunately, there’s no exact test. But it’s worth keeping in mind how seriously this person treats your interactions.

Are they an attentive texter? Do they plan one-on-one hangs with you (in years past, people called these “dates”) or do your hookups mainly stem from pairing off after a group thing? Have you met any of their closest friends and/or family? Do they acknowledge you on their social media? Do you ever do things together while totally sober?

If the answer to all of these questions is some version of “No,” “Yeah, not really,” or “Uh… I guess not”... then you might be getting freckled.

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