Call it “friends with benefits,”  “no strings attached” or something cruder, the phenomenon of people being friends and having sex is moving into mainstream pop culture with a twist — it’s the women who want sex for sex’ sake.

“This is the first time that you really see women saying, ‘No I don’t need to be bothered,’” said Cynthia Miller, a pop culturalist. “I just want a buddy and a little somethin’ somethin’ and that’s enough.”

Friends with benefits are unlike the occasional hook-up, where people meet, have sex and that’s pretty much it. “The biggest difference is that a friend with benefits would maybe come over around 7 p.m., but a booty call would be your last resort at 2 a.m.,” said Maria Avgitidis, a matchmaker, dating coach and the founder of Agape Match, a New York City based matchmaking firm.

The idea that men and women could not be friends popped up on movie screens nationwide in 1989 in the cult classic “When Harry Met Sally,” as Harry explained to Sally that “the sex part always gets in the way.”

Natalie Portman plays Emma and Ashton Kutcher is Adam in the movie “No Strings Attached.” Photo by Dale Robinette/Paramount Pictures

But with the January release of “No Strings Attached,” Hollywood is pushing the envelope once again by presenting Natalie Portman’s character, Emma, as a woman confident that she is able to have emotionless sex with her friend Adam, played by Ashton Kutcher. In a twist from the usual plot, it is Adam who begins to fall for Emma.

A few decades ago, the sexual implications of this romantic-comedy would not have been well received. But FWBs are now more visibly woven into the fabric of pop culture. “We can have ‘No Strings Attached’ because of ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and because of ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘40-Year-Old Virgin,’ said Dr. Lynnea Chapman King, a pop culturalist, who believes these films helped pave the way in terms of what movies can do, and what the market will allow.

Psychotherapist Dr. Margaret McCraw notes that the term FWB itself is now “coming from a place of strength as identifying this kind of relationship as OK. However, this type of arrangement was not always considered acceptable.”

Two major factors contributed to the shift that has led us from the 1967 film “The Graduate,” in which a married woman has an affair/FWB-like relationship with a younger man, to plainly talking about it in “No Strings Attached” and the upcoming summer flick “Friends With Benefits.” “It truly was an evolution and you can’t go back,” said Dr. Chapman King.

In the 1960s, the American sexual revolution made it OK to eventually identify with having an FWB. “It certainly wasn’t called friends with benefits, individuals in this type of relationship referenced it as, ‘We’re just friends,’ said Dr. McCraw. Around the same time pop culture slowly began alluding to the idea that people did engage in sex and stay friends.

Andrea Syrtash, relationship expert and author of, “He’s Just Not Your Type (And That’s a Good Thing),” adds that FWBs are more visible now because, “we are not looking to settle down as early as we used to. So the whole no-strings-attached not only works in relationships, but kind of in life.”

In elementary school, Kaitlin Amitrano met a boy. They hung out and eventually became really good friends in high school. Now, 23, Amitrano, a production associate at MTV Networks, kicked things up a notch and the two became FWBs. “I am fully aware of what it is before I get into it,” said Amitrano. She finds comfort in her FWB and has had about four of them since the beginning of college. “I find myself more in that situation because I don’t want to commit, but also at the same time the guy is not bringing it up either.”

A woman who writes a dating advice blog under the psedonym Moxie and her FWB have had a successful eight-year friend with benefit relationship. “We share a lot of things in common, we have a great time when we hang out.” She says a great friendship has blossomed over the years.

Elementary school teacher Katrina Green likes FWBs because it gives her the freedom to act upon her sexual desires. “If I am attracted to somebody there’s nothing holding me back from that if it’s a mutual thing. As long as you have an adult conversation about it, it really doesn’t have to end badly.” Green’s last FWB ended after just two months and both women are better friends now than they were before.

These women may be outliers in this social trend because ending badly is what many dating and relationship experts say usually happens in reality. “I think the Hollywood portrayal of friends with benefits is if you have sex enough, you’ll ultimately fall in love and that’s not the case,” said Avigitidis.

Deborrah Cooper, a dating expert and advice columnist, notes that if a woman is clear about what she wants, an FWB relationship could work, but that’s not what she sees happening.  “I see thousands and thousands of young women getting themselves caught in those situations and it always ends with, ‘well at first I didn’t like him, at first that’s not what I wanted, but now I want more.”

Regardless of the harsh reality that FWBs will not always lead to a loving long-term commitment, men and women continue to gobble up the happy ending romantic-comedies like, “No Strings Attached” dish out.

(Spoiler alert!)

“The fact that she caved at the end says we are not as cool as we think we are,” said Cynthia Miller, a pop culturalist who believes people are all still buying the fairy tale because, “reality is messy and reality is what we all have at home.”