![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Writer's Block: Go it alone
Dec. 9th, 2009 05:38 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
I think it depends very much on where you are and how seriously you take popular media. I know people -- especially women -- who do feel this pressure, but I never have. Just yesterday at work I overheard a young woman talking about her upcoming marriage. She did express love for him, and said he was a wonderful person, but she also said that the decision was made in large part so she could have health insurance. Then she said that her parents were ecstatic when they heard the news and told her Grab him and marry him while you can! -- which made me shudder. I don't know why they were so fixated on her getting married, but it's the kind of comment I never heard from my own parents.
No one, within my family or outside of it, has ever suggested that there was something wrong with me or sad about my life because I was single and/or childless. Since my divorce, no one has asked me when I'll marry again. No one tries to set me up on dates because my social status is a problem that needs to be fixed. I've always been grateful for that.
Most of the adult single women I've known have expressed a deep desire for partnership, but it's almost always seemed to me more an expression of a desire for love, support and companionship rather than to meet some societal expectation. The one friend who comes to mind who has talked about being viewed as a failure because she was single by her family and the people around her, comes out of an entirely different culture than I did.
I think it depends very much on where you are and how seriously you take popular media. I know people -- especially women -- who do feel this pressure, but I never have. Just yesterday at work I overheard a young woman talking about her upcoming marriage. She did express love for him, and said he was a wonderful person, but she also said that the decision was made in large part so she could have health insurance. Then she said that her parents were ecstatic when they heard the news and told her Grab him and marry him while you can! -- which made me shudder. I don't know why they were so fixated on her getting married, but it's the kind of comment I never heard from my own parents.
No one, within my family or outside of it, has ever suggested that there was something wrong with me or sad about my life because I was single and/or childless. Since my divorce, no one has asked me when I'll marry again. No one tries to set me up on dates because my social status is a problem that needs to be fixed. I've always been grateful for that.
Most of the adult single women I've known have expressed a deep desire for partnership, but it's almost always seemed to me more an expression of a desire for love, support and companionship rather than to meet some societal expectation. The one friend who comes to mind who has talked about being viewed as a failure because she was single by her family and the people around her, comes out of an entirely different culture than I did.
