MODERN LOVE

Mirror, mirror on the wall, why is the greatest love the hardest of them all? Georgie Bradley finds out how and why we need to be our own soul mate…

- GEORGIE BRADLEY

It was Emma Watson in an interview for British Vogue who coined the Goop-y phrase "self-partnered" when speaking to her relationship status, replacing it for the highly stigmatized: "single".

Met with the usual disdain and mockery from the internet, the term was the butt of many meme-able jokes. I have to be honest though, my eyes glazed over when I came across it. Why do we need to insert new language to talk about singledom? It already exists. It speaks more to our insecurities of being alone and the coat of shame that comes with it.

Unravel the PR spin behind self partnering, however, and there’s substance. The idea we should disembark the merry-go-round of finding "the one" and engage with the person we’ll be with forever – me, myself and I – is an essential step towards becoming self-aware. A strand of the contentious Twitter-fuelled rant followed Emma’s newfound terminology (“she can’t get a bloke!” fired off Britain’s most divisive character, Piers Morgan) sparked the notion of self-love and what it will take for us to experience it in a real and long-lasting way – we may as well get to know and like the person, we’ll be with forever as of now.