In January’s issue of Marie Claire, Marie Claire exams the notion that women are replacing husbands with their girlfriends. As you know “Girls Best Friend and Co” promotes healthy girlfriend relationships. Marie Claire’s analyzed healthy girlfriend relationships and implied that these women forewent marriage because of the intimate relationship these women developed with their best friends.
I was extremely disturbed by the article. The article details long lasting strong female relationships. I couldn’t help but to feel like the author was implying that there is something deviant about the idea of women supporting each other in such away.
Yes, women are marrying later in life. I don’t believe women are marrying later in life because they are choosing their “girlfriends” over a husband. Women are marrying later in life because women have been encouraged to be independent. Some women have sought their careers or independence over a female/male relationship. I also believe the cultural issue of working through relationships strongly influence the lack of marriage in today society. We as a culture are becoming extremely self-oriented and “me” driven. Which I believe is contributing to the erosion of “girlfriends” relationships as well as traditional intimacy issues amongst men and women.
Marie Claire’s article details moments like when Cynthia Hill deciding to have a baby via vitro fertilization. Her best friend Cathy Finley helped and supported her through progesterone shots to assisting her in delivery.
Best friends Robyn and Alison Pepper became roommates. Roommates who shared home life responsibility. Roommates who were more like family than roommates.
These were awesome examples of girlfriend loving each other and truly making their friendship work. These are relationships that should be held up as examples to live by for other women. Instead Marie Claire makes a case for replacing a husband with a girlfriend. The type of love you share with your girl friend is much different than that of the love you share with your husband. I believe they are totally different roles. But I do think both roles are equally important in a woman’s life. We sometimes make the mistake in our relationship. We expect our husbands and boyfriend to be sensitive and intuitive to certain life situations that only a woman really “gets”. You know what I mean? Then we accuse our husband of being insensitive. We look to them for the type of support we should be receiving from our girl friends.
I applaud those women who developed strong and lasting relationships with other women. Marie Claire also provided a pop culture pictorial of iconic BFFs
Times have certainly changed in how we view best “girlfriends relationships”. If you are single, do you feel like your girlfriends replaced the men in your life? What do you think of Marie Claire insinuation that “girlfriend” relationships are replacing husbands?
