Way too many people think that married people live longer. They think it is a fact. It is not. I have been debunking this for years, starting with Singled Out. Every time a new study comes out that is relevant to the myth of the long-living married people, I take a close look to see what it really says.
First, an off-topic NOTE: My apologies for not posting here as regularly as I would like to. Apologies, too, to the people who asked me about guest posting and are still waiting for me to respond or follow through. I’m behind for good reasons. I’ve been traveling, doing interviews, and working on a proposal for my new project on the creative ways that people are living other than in detached nuclear family households. (You can tell me about yours here.) Meanwhile, I have promised at least nine posts a month to PsychCentral for my “Single at Heart” blog, and I never want to let my Living Single blog go unattended for long. So “All Things Single (and More)” has tended to be the neglected child.
Now, on to the Spinster Superheroes of comedy.
Mid-February is supposed to be all about couples – treacly, dewey-eyed, Valentine’s Day lover couples. In a phenomenon that even surprised me, this February the media has been all about singles – and mostly in a good way.
When Singled Out was first published, I had a fantasy. I guess you could call it small-time, but had it ever happened, I would have been thrilled. I always wanted to walk onto an airplane and see someone reading my book.
[Bella’s intro: In my last post, I gave a name to the series that has actually been ongoing for some time: Perspectives on Single Life. The first entry posted specifically under that name is from Maya Bernadett. She takes on the pressure to just settle, a topic that, unfortunately, continues to be timely. There are a number of lines from this essay that I especially appreciate, but I think my favorite is the very last one. No cheating – don’t skip ahead to the end! Thanks, Maya, for sharing your essay with the readers of “All Things Single (and More).”]
Sorry to have been away from this blog for a while. I finally found someone who can deal with the various glitches here and make the whole site (not just the blog) work more efficiently. That’s what’s been happening in my absence. I hope you enjoy the new experience.
Today is a big day (at least by my standards). In the cover story of the Atlantic magazine, just posted online today, I am described as “America’s foremost thinker and writer on the single experience.” My Singled Out book is included, as is a discussion of the concept of singlism.
Today is also the official launch date of the new singles site highlighting all of the singles bloggers who write from an enlightened perspective. It is called Single with Attitude. I know it wasn’t everyone’s first choice (though it did come out on top), so I added a note to the section, ABOUT THIS SITE, acknowledging that not all of us think of ourselves as having attitude.
I need your help. I’ve been trying for years to explain what’s wrong with the cheater technique. That’s the one where researchers compare all single people (whether they want to be single or not) to only those married people who got married and stayed married (setting aside the nearly half who divorced, and all the widowed), rather than all of the people who ever got married. Based on that methodologically laughable approach, they then proclaim that if only you single people would get married, you would be happier, healthier, live longer, and (fill in your favorite bogus claim here), too.
Have you read my latest post over at Living Single about the article in the Chicago Tribune quoting all sorts of people who are not matrimaniacs?
A local paper published an interview of a woman whose online company has become very successful. She runs the company with her husband. Asked if she keeps her private time with her husband private, after spending all day at work with him, she said no. Then she added this:
