Cover image for The other significant others : reimagining life with friendship at the center / Rhaina Cohen.
TITLE:
The other significant others : reimagining life with friendship at the center / Rhaina Cohen.
Publication Date:
2024
Publication Information:
New York : St. Martin's Press,
Physical Description:
308 p.
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 264-295) and index.
Summary:
Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner--these are friends who are home co-owners, co-parents or each other's caregivers. Their stories unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, including the idea that sex is a defining feature of partnership and that people who raise kids together should be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from different walks of life--spanning age and religion, gender and sexuality and more--reveal how freeing and challenging it can be to embrace a relationship model that society doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world around friends isn't limited to daydreams and episodes of The Golden Girls, but actually possible in real life. Cohen argues that we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them, while we diminish friendships by expecting too little of them. She traces how, throughout history, our society hasn't always fixated on marriage as the greatest source of meaning, or even love. At a time when many Americans are spending large stretches of their lives single, widowed or divorced, or feeling the effects of the "loneliness epidemic," Cohen insists that we recognize the many forms of profound connection that can anchor our lives.
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781250280916