Skinny jeans have been cancelled and ankle socks have met their fate, but the internet\u2019s latest target is a little harder to shove to the back of your closet.<\/p>\n
Boyfriends are officially out of style.<\/p>\n
And unlike low-rise jeans, they won\u2019t be making a nostalgic comeback anytime soon \u2014 or at least not until \u201cthey start acting right\u201d.<\/p>\n
The viral conversation started after British Vogue published an opinion piece by Chante Joseph last week titled: Is having a boyfriend embarrassing now?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone so much as says \u201cmy boyf\u2013\u201d, on social media, they\u2019re muted. There\u2019s nothing I hate more than following someone for fun, only for their content to become \u201cmy boyfriend\u201d-ified suddenly,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Putting a call out on her Instagram, Joseph came to the conclusion that \u201cthere was an overwhelming sense from single and partnered women alike that, regardless of the relationship, being with a man was an almost guilty thing to do\u201d.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, the 30-year-old took to her personal TikTok account to share her latest article, blissfully unaware of the world-wide social movement she was about to spark.<\/p>\n
The post was quickly viewed, liked and shared by hundreds of thousands of people across the globe and women began to thank the author for \u201cfinally saying what everyone was thinking\u201d.<\/p>\n
Social media has since gone into a frenzy over the piece, crowning it \u201cpeak journalism\u201d and insisting even Manhattan\u2019s original column queen, Carrie Bradshaw, would be twirling in her Manolos with pride.<\/p>\n
Why do people think boyfriends are embarrassing?<\/p>\n
Selina Sterker, a 29-year-old office worker from Fremantle, was totally on board with the article\u2019s take that being single is \u201ccool\u201d in 2025 \u2014 though she couldn\u2019t help but point out it\u2019s a side-effect of modern dating culture being, well, a bit of a disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really cool that we\u2019ve all decided that we\u2019d rather be single and on our own because nothing is more lonely than being with the wrong person,\u201d Ms Sterker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think society has deemed being single cool because of how terrible dating has become these days so people have just given up really . . . to a point were no one is really wanting to be in relationships anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Sterker is recently divorced and said being single has allowed her to step into her true self.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely feel like I\u2019ve grown so much being single, my career has really taken off since I\u2019ve been on my own and I am able to do whatever I want \u2014 I\u2019ve travelled and I\u2019ve made some of the most amazing friends I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At 22, Perth primary school worker Emily says it\u2019s a relief not to feel pressure to have a boyfriend \u2014 particularly now that dating apps have turned romance into an endless swipe-fest of selfies and sorry pick-up lines.<\/p>\n
Boyfriends should only ever be an addition to your life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good that there is no longer pressure from society because you don\u2019t have to be forced into a relationship if you don\u2019t actually like the person,\u201d she said. \u201cSo girls are romanticising being single and making it cool because in-person dating is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily said the rise of singlehood has officially made flaunting a boyfriend seem, well, so last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people are saying it\u2019s cool to be single because it\u2019s a popular choice these days and people call things cool if they are on trend and everyone is doing it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing against boyfriends or having a boyfriend, but it\u2019s just cringe if a girl is always talking about her boyfriend, or always posting him and having him be the centre of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assina Mwanangoi, a 31-year-old childcare worker in Perth\u2019s south, is engaged and expecting her first baby, but she agrees boyfriends are like heels \u2014 fun to have, but you don\u2019t need them to strut through life with confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing when girls make him their whole personality and \u2014 let\u2019s be real \u2014 it will not give you a sense of self-worth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoyfriends should only ever be an addition to your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curtin University relationship expert Dr Scott Devenport said his research confirmed women are opting to be single in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women that we worked with on the research expressed that they realised that (a relationship) wasn\u2019t really what they wanted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSociety\u2019s mindset has shifted to the point where it\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing to be single at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Devenport said without the societal expectation for women to find a partner, they are struggling to see why they should rush into relationships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t have expectations around what women should be doing with their lives in terms of getting a partner . . . then it becomes like why would I want a boyfriend if that expectation is not there?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a more critical reflection on why someone is in a relationship . . . women are asking, \u2018what do I get from this that I couldn\u2019t get elsewhere, say from a friendship?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Devenport believes the expectation to be in a relationship has been minimised by social-media influencers.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are getting their information about the world in modern times from social media . . . rather than watching a movie where you\u2019re seeing a love story develop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial media is individualised, it\u2019s about self-representation . . . so the accounts that people are seeing these days are romanticising individualism and being single.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vogue article comes just a month after pop\u2019s reigning queen, Taylor Swift, dropped her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.<\/p>\n
Swifties had marked their calendars since August but were utterly disappointed by the album according to an outpour of negative online commentary.<\/p>\n
Ironically, for the first time in years, Taylor\u2019s tracks were upbeat and all about being head-over-heels in love with her fiance Travis Kelce, rather than nursing a broken heart.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, arguably the second biggest pop powerhouse, Sabrina Carpenter turned heads this year with her new album Man\u2019s Best Friend, led by the catchy tune, Manchild.<\/p>\n
The single debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with a staggering 8.05 million Spotify streams on day one \u2014 her first-ever chart-topping debut.<\/p>\n
All year, Carpenter has been known for her razor-sharp wit, calling out the men in her life and turning failed relationships into catchy, laugh-out-loud anthems \u2014 and she has been reaching new heights of stardom doing it.<\/p>\n
So, it begs the question is it cooler to be single than in a relationship in 2025?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Skinny jeans have been cancelled and ankle socks have met their fate, but the internet\u2019s latest target is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,1625],"class_list":["post-268964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}