Standard Deviant Singlehood
This has irked me for quite some time now.
I was in a committed relationship for the entirety of my 20's, during which I ignored most of the statistics that came out of studies about romantic relationships. I'm single now, and re-examining a lot of the ideas that I've come across in the last couple decades of my life. Here's one that I've always come across, and despised, but decided to remain silent on: that people who are single don't live as long as those who get married and stay in committed relationships.
Okay, I understand that you have the right to do whatever study you want about whatever, and its the purview of Internet journalism to responsibly report on these things to us, but here's my response: stop telling people they're going to die years earlier than they would if they had found a mate.
Is this true? I have no idea. I didn't even bother Googling around to figure out where this notion originated, how the study was constructed, whether or not the results were actually statistically significant, etc, etc. In all honesty, I do not care. It's far outside the scope of this blog post for me to make the case that monogamy is natural versus unnatural. What I do know is quite unnatural is instilling a sense of anxiety in people about the fact that they're going to die early unless they find someone to settle down with.
Let's imagine that this is true: single people have, on average, much shorter lifespans than married people. In this case, it's probably fair asking the question as to whether or not the cultural stigma of being a single person is not only causing the results of the studies, and whether the studies themselves are accepted by people as a result of the cultural stigma itself? I'd suspect that academia has a term in its glossary for this kind of sociological feedback loop, though I'm not sure what it is.
Stop reporting this kind of thing, and as a culture, let's stop believing it. I'm not dating at the moment, and I'm well aware that there's nothing wrong with being single. It's unclear to me whether or not I'm going to rush into dating in the distant future, but when I do, I'd really rather not have to wade through a bunch of women who are going on dates with me merely because they have some neurosis about dying early unless they find a man.
And besides, if you're worried about longevity and you're single, you can just get a dog. Right? :P
I was in a committed relationship for the entirety of my 20's, during which I ignored most of the statistics that came out of studies about romantic relationships. I'm single now, and re-examining a lot of the ideas that I've come across in the last couple decades of my life. Here's one that I've always come across, and despised, but decided to remain silent on: that people who are single don't live as long as those who get married and stay in committed relationships.
Okay, I understand that you have the right to do whatever study you want about whatever, and its the purview of Internet journalism to responsibly report on these things to us, but here's my response: stop telling people they're going to die years earlier than they would if they had found a mate.
Is this true? I have no idea. I didn't even bother Googling around to figure out where this notion originated, how the study was constructed, whether or not the results were actually statistically significant, etc, etc. In all honesty, I do not care. It's far outside the scope of this blog post for me to make the case that monogamy is natural versus unnatural. What I do know is quite unnatural is instilling a sense of anxiety in people about the fact that they're going to die early unless they find someone to settle down with.
Let's imagine that this is true: single people have, on average, much shorter lifespans than married people. In this case, it's probably fair asking the question as to whether or not the cultural stigma of being a single person is not only causing the results of the studies, and whether the studies themselves are accepted by people as a result of the cultural stigma itself? I'd suspect that academia has a term in its glossary for this kind of sociological feedback loop, though I'm not sure what it is.
Stop reporting this kind of thing, and as a culture, let's stop believing it. I'm not dating at the moment, and I'm well aware that there's nothing wrong with being single. It's unclear to me whether or not I'm going to rush into dating in the distant future, but when I do, I'd really rather not have to wade through a bunch of women who are going on dates with me merely because they have some neurosis about dying early unless they find a man.
And besides, if you're worried about longevity and you're single, you can just get a dog. Right? :P