Emma Watson Coins New Phrase for Singledom

She's 'self-partnered,' actress says
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 5, 2019 11:32 AM CST
Emma Watson: I'm 'Self-Partnered'
In this May 25, 2014 file photo, actress Emma Watson walks at Brown University in Providence, RI.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Emma Watson is on the cover of British Vogue's December issue, and in her interview she coins a new phrase that CNN compares to Gwyneth Paltrow's "conscious uncoupling." In Watson's case, she turns 30 in April of next year and has no romantic partner—and she said it's made this year tough at times. "There is suddenly this bloody influx of subliminal messaging around" after turning 29, she says. "If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out. … There’s just this incredible amount of anxiety." But she has turned it around, which is where her new phrase comes in.

"I never believed the whole ‘I’m happy single’ spiel,” she says. "I was like, 'This is totally spiel.' It took me a long time, but I’m very happy. ... I call it being self-partnered." At Jezebel, Hazel Cills is sympathetic to what Watson is saying, to a point. "What’s wrong with just saying you’re single?" she asks. Watson's phrase "conjures images of women who appear in Daily Mail articles about elaborately marrying themselves," she writes. "It’s a fun gesture, in a performance art way, but it also further stigmatizes the idea that a woman could be alone forever and be okay with it ... without constantly making proclamations about how okay with it she is." See more of the Watson interview at Vogue. (More Emma Watson stories.)

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