The Suffering of the Single Man?

My mother is in the habit of sending me envelopes stuffed with coupons she thinks I might need along with articles she has clipped from the newspaper that she thinks are suitable reading. I opened up my latest package this morning to find an article entitled Marriage isn't always the best way to go, Single Men Fight for Empowerment. I suppose that she is trying to tell me that it is alright to be on my own; but surely, I don't need to hear it from her local newspaper.

The article describes how people are waiting longer and longer these days to get married, how men are finding it less advantageous to pair up as financial and emotional independence are more the order of the day. It describes how single women have been applauded as of late with shows like Sex in the City and goes on to some of the troubles associated with being single late in life at work: the stigma and questions involved when a man of a certain age is without a wife. I hate to see anyone suffer discrimination for the life choices he's made, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for a straight man in a situation that countless gay men have suffered scrutiny for for years, even decades. Why is a sudden surge in the number of straight men taking flack for being single a cause for exposing the issue and a call of empowerment and acceptance? How many gay men have dealt with being single, or worse, having to appear to be single to the outside world while hiding their relationships from co-workers and the public eye over the past century? I certainly don't recall any call for empowerment in any of those instances.

The article cites several problems at work including "speculation about a single man's sexual preferences and, concomitantly, a difficulty in making friends with heterosexual co-workers because colleagues might question his motives." Sound oddly familiar to me. I guess when the rumors of homosexuality are false, then it becomes a problem to address.

I guess my problem here is that this stigma associated with being single has been around for years and people have needlessly suffered for their life choices due to the close-mindedness and assumptions of those around them. Whether we choose to marry or be single, our worth should be based on our individual actions and achievements. Perhaps we are a little late in trying to dispel the wrong in the assumptions we make about single people, especially single men.