Our North American culture has created a stigma on the perception of the single life. Through TV, movies, music, magazines, etc. pop culture floods our lives with romantic scenarios of adults seeking love, romance, and long term relationships, while at the same time showing singles as vulnerable, awkward, and just plain weird. These stories seem benign but the message that the single man is incomplete until he finds a girlfriend is absurd.
The false reality of needing someone is fueled by Hollywood’s ultimate marketing job and the stigma surrounding the single life. There’s a pressure for men and women to pair up and live happily ever after. But, as most of us know, Happily Ever After is a fraud. We’re all told we have to have a wife, girlfriend, life partner, someone, but, as Larry David says, I wish I could call my wife my partner, she’s really more of a rival.