FakePretty.com was formed to eulogize the death of the women’s magazine and celebrate the monstrous birth of something new. Writers for FP have written for The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and numerous New York City and San Francisco Bay Area publications. We eat lipstick for breakfast. Find us on Twitter @FakePretty To Contribute to Fake Pretty, email your submissions to fakeprettyfakepretty@gmail.com and include a bio. Elizabeth Daley is the site's founder and EIC.
Last fall, I had the benefit of watching one of my oldest friends get married. The wedding was beautiful, fun and everything one might hope for in a good party. It took place in upstate New York, and since marriage equality had been passed recently in our state, it seemed as if all guests celebrated without reservation. I was with this same friend and her now-husband when marriage equality passed on a hot night in June. The entire bar in Brooklyn erupted into cheers. We were, finally, all created equal.
Then, Beyoncé’s song “All the Single Ladies” came on and I looked around at my unmarried friends and down at my own ring-less hand. What if I never get married? Not to a man, not to a woman, not to anyone? Marriage equality is great and liberating and what should happen, but does marriage as an institution discriminate against those among us who, in larger numbers than ever, may never “seal the deal”?
According to study upon study, trends are not in favor of marriage. There are more single mothers every year, more divorces and more couples who never partake in nuptial bliss. Studies also show that people who do get married are doing so later in life.
