International playboys
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Where the Irish bachelor has sometimes been a figure for mild sympathy, the same can hardly be said for his international counterpart. With the launch of 'Playboy' in 1953, the unmarried man's currency was enviably strong.
"The notion of the single man began in the 1950s. The idea of the bachelor as a separate life was new and obscure," says Hugh Hefner (right) of his billion-dollar empire. And since then, the international playboy has played the field with impressive panache and élan.
Even through the looking glass of Hollywood, the bachelor was an endlessly glamorous figure. James Bond, arguably the most stylish bachelor in the movie canon, wasn't going to let something as immaterial as long-term commitment get in the way of a good time.
The Noughties saw a new strain of unmarried man come to the fore: the 'Toxic Bachelor'. Predictably, the TB is a man doggedly determined to live the high (and solitary) life for as long as possible.
Of the 93 million unmarried people in the US, it is thought that 46.6pc are male, while 53.4pc are female. Precious little wonder, then, that the Toxic Bachelor has risen in prominence.
It's long been said that the balance of power between single men and women shifts as time goes on, and certainly there is academic evidence to support this. Last month, the University of Maryland picked up on a new social phenomenon for men to enjoy a 'golden age' of renewed male friendships in their late 40s.
Instead of juggling family and work, these men have created an alternative supportive structure of male camaraderie and loyalty.
Irish Independent
