Distressed with your partner? Choking in the yoke of patriarchy? Hate the world for normalising casual sexism? Did you just get dumped?
Worry not!
Looks like a number of women across the globe have taken feminist Gloria Steinem most popular quote “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” more seriously than ever. Sologamy, a concept of self-marriage looks like a wonderful way to quit the hunt for a perfect partner to marry yourself in this bizarre world, because well, who understands you better than you?
Source: wusa9.com
This trend where people marry themselves began to grow popular when Erika Anderson, 37, dressed like any other bride with the whole wedding ball rolling decided to marry herself. This trend of a wedding with no groom waiting for the bride at the altar went viral on the internet with videos of women marrying themselves. Anderson said she grew tired of people asking why she was still single. So, in front of family and friends, she married herself.
It is to be noted that the idea in itself was first introduced when a woman named Linda Baker decided to marry herself in the US back in 1993 as a celebration of her 40th birthday. The concept was then induced into popular culture when an episode of Sex in the City first mentioned it where Sarah Jessica Parker announces that she is going to marry herself as a celebration of being single and childless in this world that expects otherwise.
The idea, in fact, went further than speculated. While trends are made to capitalise upon, “Marry Yourself” in Canada offers consulting and wedding photography. There’s also IMarriedMe.com, launched by San Francisco man Jeffrey Levin. His site offers sologamy ceremony kits, which includes a wedding band, daily affirmation cards and vows.
“I think it’s increased over the years, and it’s something that’s becoming more understood and more accepted,” Levin said.
Furthermore, Cerca Travel, a Japanese travel agency, has gone one step further by creating a package for single women who wish to marry themselves. This package can be availed for a minimal amount of £2,500 and Cerca Travel takes care of the entire rigamarole of the big event.
This may look like a cry for help or yet another first world fad, but at the core, it espouses an idea that one is enough to be their own soulmate and that being alone is its own state of being and not a symptom of worse things.
