Name: Why friendship can be just as meaningful as romantic love
Uploaded: 2024-11-12T15:37:51Z
Duration: 9 min 14 s
Description: We tend to consider romantic partners and family ties to be our most important relationships, but deep friendships can be just as meaningful. In a perspective-shifting talk, author Rhaina Cohen introduces us to the people unsettling norms by choosing a friend as a life partner — and shows why we're all better off recognizing there's more than one kind of significant other.

Rhaina Cohen: Why friendship can be just as meaningful as romantic love

Why friendship can be just as meaningful as romantic love

We tend to consider romantic partners and family ties to be our most important relationships, but deep friendships can be just as meaningful. In a perspective-shifting talk, author Rhaina Cohen introduces us to the people unsettling norms by choosing a friend as a life partner — and shows why we're all better off recognizing there's more than one kind of significant other.

Romantic love and marriage are often seen as the main sources of companionship, but deep friendships can fulfill the same essential human needs. In the US, a record number of adults have never married, and about 30 percent of women over 65 are widows, challenging the assumption that a spouse will always be present. Across cultures and history, friendship has served as a central bond, sometimes as significant as family or romance. Reimagining friendship as a form of chosen commitment opens new possibilities for love, care, and belonging.