I'm so glad younger people are largely abandoning the "wife bad" garbage. Maybe it's not so bad to, you know, openly enjoy being with someone you love without having to make a joke about it.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 128 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No one has to "get married by 23 and if they ever get divorced they're massive failures" anymore.

[–] LoreleiSankTheShip@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Depends on the part of the world you live in. I'm that age and coworkers (!) constantly joke about having to find me a wife and find it a bit odd that I'm not even in a long-time relationship yet.

I had this colleague a few years back who was 28-29 at the time, and people were bad-mouthing him because he wasn't married, saying that something must be wrong with him. Societal pressure is very strong here.

You wouldn't believe this is happening in the EU, right?

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 118 points 1 month ago

It's so bizarre. My models for a successful marriage growing up were my grandparents, and they adored each other. Comfortable enough to tease each other, but I couldn't imagine them ever doing something like using a wedding or an anniversary to make these kinds of weird "Wife bad" jokes.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

The biggest reason for declining marriages is that people can actually make choices now and people don't want to be shackled to someone they hate their whole lives.

People had radically different attitudes about marriage in olden times, when marriage equaled survival in many ways, and survival of your family, your connections, your career and your status, which was held through generations. It wasn't thought of normally in terms of love and that's a very modern view of marriage.

Romance and marriage for love certainly existed, but that was usually considered fantasy or stageplay.