by Bella DePaulo | Oct 25, 2021 | ALL THINGS SINGLE, historical perspectives, Matrimania, Perspectives on Single Life, singles rights and advocacy, Singlism and matrimania
Photo by David Justice
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.
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by Bella DePaulo | Mar 22, 2019 | ALL THINGS SINGLE, singles in the military, singles rights and advocacy, singlism
[Bella’s intro: When rental agents have an option to rent a property to a married couple, a cohabiting couple, or a pair of friends, they favor the married couple very disproportionately, even when the applicants are similar in every other way. That’s what my colleagues and I found in our studies of housing discrimination. When I was doing the research for Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After, I learned that there was also a form of housing discrimination against single people in the military, and I wrote about it briefly. Recently, Air Force veteran Dale Nyhus told me about his own research into the topic, which is much more extensive and up-to-date than my previous work. I am grateful to him sharing it here in this guest post.]
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by Bella DePaulo | Nov 3, 2018 | ALL THINGS SINGLE, demographics, politics, Single women, singles rights and advocacy
One of the longstanding sources of frustration and disappointment among advocacy-oriented unmarried Americans is that political candidates rarely address us or promise to fight for us, the way they so often vow to stand up for married couples and traditional families. In their campaign materials, candidates who are married with children like to boast about that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a candidate brag about not being married or not having kids, or even acknowledge their marital or parental status in their biographies, except perhaps for single mothers.
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by Bella DePaulo | Apr 6, 2018 | ALL THINGS SINGLE, Money, singles rights and advocacy, singlism
Unmarried Equality members have probably noticed lots of ways in which single people are not treated fairly by businesses and other groups and organizations. Let’s do more than just rolling our eyes or venting among ourselves. Let’s call them out.
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by Bella DePaulo | Aug 20, 2016 | ALL THINGS SINGLE, singles rights and advocacy, Singlism and matrimania
I’ve been on a decades-long mission to push back against all the misrepresentations of single people as sad and lonely losers, and to showcase more accurate portrayals of how real single people often live meaningful and fulfilling lives. As part of my quest to slay singlism and bring matrimania to its knees, I have been sharing the stories of single-minded change agents who are inspired by the same passions. They have already made great strides in challenging marital status discrimination and highlighting stories of the good single life.
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by Bella DePaulo | Feb 7, 2016 | ALL THINGS SINGLE, singles rights and advocacy, singlism
Single people have yet to have their moment as a political force. That’s unfortunate, as there are so many ways that they are denied the benefits and protections accorded to people who are married. Here are links to discussions of advocacy, activism, and issues facing singles; the legal and financial costs of single life; politics and voting; matters of privilege; and more.
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