I am somewhere to the north of 39, never married and don’t feel like a freak. Would I like to get married? Sure. Do I have to make compromises? Of course. Most healthy people over 35 realize this.
I know several women who got married at “old maid” ages. Men too. I just watched a man who lost his wife after 40 plus years of marriage barely hold it together at the wake. They were in freakdom when they married.
Another freak here. 41, would love to get married, just never met the right woman. Had one woman I loved, but she turned out to be crazy (which I learned before we got hitched).
“I know several women who got married at “old maid” ages.”
Yes, my esteemed Godmother, a very conservative woman didn’t get married until she was quite old. At least by the standards of her generation. She must have been at least 40.
I sort of remember my mom saying something about her very strict Italian parents thinking that no one was ever “good enough” for her, and I think she did not get married until both her parents had died.
I could be wrong about that, but everyone WAS surprised when she did get married.
And, insofar as I know, she married a man of at least her age, if not older, and he had never been married either.
And, also insofar as I know, they’ve been happily married for all this time, decades anyway.
I don’t like the idea that being divorced somehow is a good qualifier for marriage.
You really have to judge people as individuals.
Anthony Weiner is not the first jerk man who ever came down the road.