Personal Limitations: Marriage Status, Part 1

At first glance, marriage status may seem to have little bearing on our fiction habits. However, nearly all books and movies beyond a mid-grade level (stories for kids 8-12 years) have an element of romance/sexual tension. Indeed, even many of younger stories have romance in them too, if only the fairy-tale love of Cinderella or Snow White. So your marriage status can and will change how you perceive this prevalent element of story.

For the sake of this study, I will focus on three groups:

• Singles (defined here as someone who has never been in a sexually intimate relationship)

• Married couples (men and women currently in a sexually active relationship)

• Widows/divorcées (those who were in a sexual relationship which has now been broken)

Each of these has freedoms and restrictions that generally apply to the whole group. But remember: we’re dealing with personal limitations, so the exact application will vary from person to person.