American Singles Embracing Once-Taboo Choices

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Sharon Jayson, Singles Embracing Once-Taboo Choices; Interracial, same-sex marriages are ‘fine.’ USA Today, Feb 6, 2014 (front page).

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Today’s singles are an accepting bunch--up to a point, finds a survey out Wednesday [Feb 5] that asks what’s OK in a relationship.

Most singles say some relationships once considered taboos are “fine”--including Interracial marriage, interfaith marriage and same-sex marriage.

Other choices once deemed unacceptable are also “fine,” like long-term unmarried partners living togetehr and having kids outside marriage.

But some things are “not fine” when most of the more than 5,000 singles 18 nd older in the nationally representative survey, done for dating website Match.com.

Those include sexually open marriage, in which partners agree that each may have extramarital sexual relationships; married couples sleeping in different bedrooms or living in different homes and long-distancemarriage in general.

“Everything that is ‘not fine’ has one element in common: a disruption of that profound connection” between the two people, says anthropologist Helen Fisher of Rutgers University, who helped Match.com develop the survey.

“You’re more likely to grow apart if you’re living in a separate place,” says Los Angeles single Gabrielle Schacher, 31, who was not part of the survey.

Clinical psychologist Wendy Walsh of Los Angeles, who also wasn’t involved with the survey, says findings seem to “correlate with all the research that shows people want bonded relationships that are based on love and healthy attachment.”

Among the findings:
> 20% say having sex on a first date is OK; 80% disagree.
>40% of women and 48% of men say they have sent a sexually explicit text message; 36% of women and 35% of men have sent a sexy photo.
> 31% say they have had a one-night stand turn into a committed relationship; 28% have had “friends with benefits” turn into commitment.


# table:

“FINE WITH SINGLES

86%  Interracial marriage
80%  Interfaith marriage
76%  Long-term live-in partners who don’t marry
65%  Having children outside marriage

NOT FINE
78%  Ssexually open marriage
62%  Long-distance marriage
56%  Married couples sleeping in separate bedrooms

source[:] Research Now survey of more than 5,000 singles for Match.com”