Much to my amazement and delight, I recently discovered that there's a whole week dedicated to being single! September 19-25 is officially Unmarried and Single Americans Week. The week was "started by the Buckeye Singles Council in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society" according to the Unmarried America web site.
Obviously this week is not widely publicized because no one I spoke with, married or single, had ever heard of it. One journalist offered her perspective on Yahoo Personals. She offers a clue as to why few people know about the week. As any single person knows, despite our growing numbers, there is still a stigma attached to being single. This is strange given society's general opinion of marriage. It's long been common practice to denigrate married life in popular culture. In television, movies, and in reality married life is portrayed as being a boring, sexless, life-sucking, prison-like hell of blaming someone else (spouse) for everything that 's wrong with one's life. You would think married people were forced down the aisle with a gun to their heads. Even more ridiculous is the contradiction of a billion dollar wedding industry coupled with an ever increasing divorce rate. Among the married people I know and those I meet, not one is happy. And few are committed given the rate at which I am propositioned by married men. Funny how this week comes at a time when I almost violated one of the most significant singles rules: Never go back. There is always a good reason why that relationship went bad like so much rancid meat.
So I say, singles be happy! We have successfully managed NOT to get legally locked into a questionable institution. Go out and celebrate!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
National Singles Week
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2 comments:
City Girl, I have to say that I feel sorry for you. You sound sooooo bitter. It is true how marriage is portrayed in the media, i.e., "the old ball and chain", but there is always that underlying unspoken fondness for the institution. Like the comfortableness of an old shoe, or the statistics that show that married people actually have more sex than people think (yes, city girl, with each other), or the idea that most people enjoy the idea of having a life long partner through good times and bad. Just because you haven't found someone you can stand to be with for life or vice versa don't knock it or be down with OPP. Celebrate your singleness today because tomorrow you might meet your Mr. Big.
Sorry Anonymous if I sound bitter to you but I am actually a hopeless romantic. I have become somewhat disillusioned by all the crappy men out there.
I don't like old shoes and while I do hope marrieds are having more sex than they say, they are probably not having as much as singles. And to be clear, OPP is not my style. Maybe if married men stayed out of the bars, there would be less of it going around.
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