In the wake of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' divorce, everyone from the New York Times to TMZ has chimed in about the couple's failed nuptials, Scientology or Suri Cruise. But one young (presumably single) British woman has seized on TomKat's split as an opportunity for letting single women know just how much happier their lives would be if they were married. She even breaks the benefits of married life down into a simple list.
Emily Hartridge's defense of marriage (h/t The Gloss) is just one segment in a series of videos she produces called "10 Reasons Why ..." Here are her 10 reasons why you should get married:
1. "Prevents you from dying alone"
2. "Brings you more sex"
3. "As a married woman, you won't need to work as much as before"
4. "Married people are happier"
5. "You always have a +1"
6. "Nothing cures a hangover like an orgasm"
7. "Married women don't have to worry about being called cat lady"
8. "Romantic songs don't make you cry anymore"
9. "You have someone to kiss every morning"
10. "You have someone to come home to every evening"
With this video, Hartridge entered herself in an ongoing debate that has raged especially over the last two years. Tracy McMillan's February 2011 blog post "Why You're Not Married" struck a nerve with thousands of women, as did Lori Gottlieb's 2011 book "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough." In June 2012, McMillan argued on HuffPost Women that most women can't be happy single. "I've been standing at water coolers for the past thirty years talking to women about their love lives, and here's what I've learned: Eventually, most women I know want to be partnered," she wrote.
Of course there also many women who disagree with McMillan, especially because the numbers of single women have increased over the last few years. In November 2011, journalist Kate Bolick published her much-discussed Atlantic Monthly piece "All the Single Ladies" defending those women's decision to stay single. In a piece for The Huffington Post, author Anna David wrote: "There are women who need relationships to be happy and women that don't, and the most I can determine about the members of each group is that they spend a hell of a lot of time judging the other."
What do you think? Did you related to Hartridge's? Are (most) women happier married?
In February we asked our readers to share the reasons why they're still single. Read some of their responses below, then tweet your answer @HuffPostWomen using #WhyImSingle, and we'll add it to the slideshow.
LOOK: Readers Share #WhyImSingle