Jaclyn Geller, PhD

"We must remember that romantic love came late to wedlock. Nonmarital people should know this and understand that our position in early modernity worsened. One must be cautious about generalizing, but to derive meaning from the past some generalizations are necessary. I believe that between the Reformation, when clerical celibacy started to become disreputable, and the twenty-first century, when rejection of wedlock became rife, an expanse of time passed during which never-married people had no 'place.' The person living outside marriage was presumed to be partial, inadequate. With no sanctioned identity other than 'loser,' such people had to create niches for themselves. Many did so with names they assigned partners and written critiques of marriage. Others did so with deeds: solitary questing, constructing nonstandard families, community building. The stigmas – childishness, unattractiveness, misanthropy – stuck. They're still around. But…a positive reality belies these stereotypes."