Why are people so threatened by happy single people? — I am an unapologetic advocate for single people — all of them, but especially those who love being single and want to stay single, the Single at Heart. I’ve always known that my position might generate resistance. Ever since I published Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored…

Valentine’s Day stories were about happy single people and platonic love — It is Valentine’s Day, 2023, and I received this email from a very wise single person, Stephanie Dillemuth of Arlington, Virginia: “I just had a friend text me her condolences because she “knows today is tough” for me. I was puzzled and thought maybe she thought someone close to me…

Do you know how old people are when they become widowed? — When I searched for a photo of a widow to use for this story, the picture you see at the top is one of the first that appeared. There was a time when a photo of a fairly old person would seem to me to be just the right representation…

The ability to compromise is different from an unwillingness, based on principles and values — Have you heard the one about how people in marriages and romantic relationships learn to compromise? Or the corollary of that — if you want to learn how to compromise, you need to have experience in romantic relationships? One implication is that single people don’t know how to compromise. Another…

The rise in single women translates into greater political power and more — “In the near future, American politics, both national and local, may turn on the degree to which people remain single, and also whether they decide to have children.” That declaration appeared in an article by Joel Kotkin and Samuel J. Abrams, The Rise of the Single Woke (and Young, Democratic)…

Mindsets that sound romantic can be perilous — The belief that a person is just not complete without a spouse got its most memorable expression in the movie Jerry Maguire, when Jerry tells Dorothy, “You complete me.” Whether that strikes you as romantic or ripe for mocking, it is a quote that has made its mark. It shows…

Living alone, spending time alone, aging alone — those were readers’ most loved stories in 2022 — Living alone, being alone, spending time alone, aging alone — this past year, just about every time I published a story that had something to do with aloneness, lots of people seemed to love it. At the end of every year, I look back at the stories I wrote to…

Scholars and journalists are taking single people seriously. Advocacy, though, is lagging behind. — Getting single people and single life taken seriously should not be a hard sell. In the U.S., nearly half of all adults 18 and older are not married. On the average, Americans spend more years of their adult lives not married than married. This is not just an American or…

Romantic coupling isn’t a magical road to happiness. For some, it is exactly the wrong route — If you are single, living alone, and feeling down, do you think you are sad because you are single and living alone? Do you think that if you would just find a romantic partner and get married, or at least move in with a romantic partner — or any other…