It is risky to look to one person for all your emotional needs, research shows — One and done. That’s how some people think about their relationships. Find “The One” and now your relationship challenges have been mastered. In your spouse, you have the person who fulfills all of your wishes and needs, especially your emotional needs. You have the person who cheers you up when…

A new book makes the case for the legal recognition of more kinds of families — People who are married have access to many important federal benefits and protections that are not available to single people or the important people in their lives, such as a close friend or a special relative. Those advantages include economic ones, health-related ones, advantages relevant to children, and many others…

An absolutely brilliant new site that flips the script, hilariously and insightfully — Sometimes the best way to demonstrate just how ridiculous or insulting or unfair the treatment of single people can be is to flip the script. The first page of my Singled Out book starts like this: I think married people should be treated fairly. They should not be stereotyped, stigmatized…

How can we change the narratives about singles and stop the singlism? — I am sharing with you below an email I will always treasure. Sonja wants to know what we most need to do to change the narratives about single people and to put an end to the singlism we face. She is not just asking idly; she wants to work on…

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. …

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)…