4 Non-Traditional Couples We Should All Be Celebrating
I was walking with my good friend one night after a hot yoga class. We were deep in conversation, as we tend to be, when suddenly we caught a glimpse of a couple walking by.
The girl was tall, white and blonde. She looked like a model. She was wearing a sequin gold skirt and the chicest bomber jacket I'd ever seen. She looked as if she had just stepped out of an advert for Topshop.
The guy was handsome. His hair was dark, and he was slender, but muscular. He wore thick-framed glasses, grayish skinnies and classic Converses, and his skin was the darkest shade of chocolate you've ever seen. That's right, he was black.
My friend and I looked at each other and smiled, and without saying a word, I knew she'd agree with my next comment, which was, " I love seeing interracial couples".
That short moment of diversity within a couple led us to think about how many different types of couples one can encounter these days, and the most mind-blowing thing is, people STILL judge and sneer at couples who are different.
Apart from making us do crazy things, love makes us forget, and more than forget, it makes us shout a really big "screw you" to other people's definition of acceptable.
I'd like to say we live in a society who is blind to color, ethnicity, age and physical difference, but the truth is, we still pay very much attention to these things and give them a larger importance than we really should.
However, this is starting to change. As we progress and become more understanding of diversity, we can notice how the dating scene is full of people who are looking for someone different.
We're now attracted to different and strive for different because being in a relationship with someone who's more or less the same as you is boring.
The future of American families is so diverse, and these are just a few examples of how special and distinct we're becoming as a nation and hopefully, one day, as a human race.
1. Interracial couples
Interracial marriages have only been fully legal and approved by the Supreme Court in the Unites States since 1967. Imagine that.
A good friend of mine just recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who is -- brace yourself for the coolness of this one -- African American, German, Italian and Jewish. Fifty years ago, it would've been illegal for her parents to be together.
Fifty years ago, she would've been the laughing stock at her school. She wouldn't have truly belonged anywhere. She would've been marginalized for not being black enough, for not being white enough, for not being Christian or Jewish enough.
Today, though, that gorgeous little girl can be and do whatever her heart desires. She can love whomever she wants to love, work wherever she wants to and identify herself as whatever she'd like to.
Interracial couples are the future. We need to create a world where race and ethnicity are so watered down, they just don't exist anymore. Let this be our goal so that when our children apply for jobs, they will be forced to check off "other" under questions about race.
2. Couples with body diversity
I'm a tallish Hispanic girl, and most women my height (5'8") would never dream of going out with a shorter guy. I've gone out with shorter men and let me tell you, there's seriously nothing wrong with it.
It's not weird, it's not gross, it's pretty much regular. If you ever stop to look around at a bar on a Friday night, it's so fun to watch tall, skinny guys with chubby, short girls -- dad bods with swimsuit model types.
Finally, we're accepting body diversity as the norm, and thanks to #BOPO movements, our generation is starting to educate themselves about what it means to love someone regardless of what they look like, creating more and more body-diverse couples.
We still have a long way to go, though. Not so long ago I heard two bros talking about how fat their friend's girlfriend was, which really stunk to hear, but then I thought about how sad it was these two, with their perfect little bodies, were getting turned down by every single girl at that bar.
Their friend may be dating a girl who isn't perfect by society's standards, but he was able to see her heart and therefore was not sitting dateless in that bar.
3. Couples with different economic statuses
Women often make less money than men, and that HAS TO CHANGE!
There are women, though, who do make more money than their partners. Now, this may pose problems to men who have macho tendencies, but again, because times are changing, some men are not only OK with this, they feel proud to know their girlfriends and wives are kicking ass in the money department.
Stay-at-home dads are more common than before, and many of them confess to loving the responsibility of rearing their children and caring for the household in a much more hands-on way.
The future should look like this: Men and women earn equal pay and are equally expected and held responsible for raising children.
4. Couples with age gaps
Age ain't nothing but a number, until you tell your friends the guy you like is 15 years your senior.
Judgment is so real when it come to age gaps. If you like older men, you have daddy issues, and if you like someone younger than you, you're a perv.
What if people with age gaps just fell in love because they fell in love? Oh wait, that's exactly what happens! I love seeing couples with obvious age gaps.
Some men like a more experienced woman and some women like a more experienced man. Love is love, and when you fall for someone, the year they were born is just irrelevant.
