I found myself drawing the extra box “neither” on a form that asked if I was single or married. What that had to do with the state of my swollen knee was beyond me, writes wendy_squires
the number of one-person households will rise by 65 per cent by 2036. That’s an estimated 4.3 million more such households, and represents a lot of people going it alone.
Not all single people are pining for a special someone to complete them. We are also not necessarily celibate.the things they valued most highly about it and got the following answers: privacy ; independence ; freedom ; self-reliance ; and reducing the demands of othersIn my mind, a better word for “single” is “independent”. It’s a nicer term with more positive connotations, just like “child free” is a more palatable description of those without children than the downbeat “childless”.
It’s still no one’s beeswax who or what you do in your private life, but at least changing the word is one way to catch up on the many broad lifestyle choices available today. It shows how the norms have shifted away from predominantly religious-based notions that decree coupling as a requisite to happiness.Which leads me back to the preconceived perceptions of singledom and why they need to change. Not all single people are pining for a special someone to complete them.
Today, when we recognise that sex and sexuality can be fluid, why are we still categorising relationships as static ? And why is the latter still perceived as negative, an unhappy state of limbo, thus denying the freedoms that remaining unattached allow? To those who want to propagate the belief that singles are missing out on romance and sex and intimacy, you may find yourself in a distinct minority in your convictions. Because being independent is an attractive alternative, one that lends to the truth that single is a spectrum, not a cliché, something that doesn’t define anyone, or deserve being stuck in an archaic status box.