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10 Ways Single People Can Claim Their Rightful Place: Guest Post by Jaclyn Geller
“To further relationship-status equity, behave as if it already exists.”
Jaclyn Geller is guest-posting here to share her bold (and sometimes hilarious) Call to Action for single people who are tired of the pervasive unfairness that advantages married people and deeply disadvantages anyone who is not officially married. Geller, an English professor and author of Here Comes the Bride: Women, Weddings, and the Marriage Mystique, has long been at the cutting edge of thinking on matters of fairness for people who are not married. I have been hosting her guest posts since 2009.
Today’s Call to Action is for people who have always been single (never married) and plan to stay that way. I posted a longer version on the blog at my website; it includes two additional ways single people can claim their rightful place in society. Geller also has advice for people considering betrothal, people who are engaged, people who are married, and people of all relationship statuses. Perhaps some of those Calls to Action will appear here in the future.
Maybe you won’t have the nerve, or the interest, in pursuing all of these suggestions, but anything you can do is a step in the right direction. In any case, I do think you will enjoy reading these! I’m guessing there are at least a few you have never seen anywhere else before.
Being the Change We Want to See:
A Call to Action for People Who Have Never Been Married and Never Plan to Be
By Jaclyn Geller
One way to further relationship-status equity is to behave as if it already exists. Instead of deferring to a world in which marriage rules, let’s refuse to live in that world. Toward this end, here are some suggestions.
1. At the doctor’s office, when you fill out forms that define relationship status, repudiate the “married”/“single” binary. Make another box, check it, and write a description that best encapsulates your most meaningful relationships. If this is too time consuming, leave the boxes blank and write “Not applicable” or “Why is this important?”…
