ABSTRACT
In this paper, we explore the gendered experience of singleness and how this is negotiated within a marketplace that continues to legitimise heterosexual relationship as a normative form of intimacy (Budgeon, 2008). To date, there is surprisingly little research exploring single consumers and their participation in the marketplace. Yet, census data and national surveys consistently highlight the growth of the single population (Euromonitor, 2012), with 51% of Britain’s population registered as unmarried in 2011 compared to 30% in 2001 (ONS, 2012). Meanwhile, Burnett (2007) calls for the need to realise the untapped potential of the singles market, suggesting that there has been an oversight by both academics and marketers to understand the consumption experience of singles (Wortzel, 1977). We argue that such an oversight mirrors broader marginalisation of singleness as a troubled cultural category (Reynolds & Wetherell, 2003), in which single individuals are stigmatised as the abject other since they do not conform to the dominant heterogender arrangements (Budgeon, 2008; Ingraham, 1996).
