A growing anti-marriage movement is being fueled by viral TikTok trends and high-profile celebrities painting men as the enemy. According to a new column, women may ultimately be the ones losing out. In a USA Today op-ed, columnist Ingrid Jacques warned of a rising wave of “heteropessimism,” defining it as women’s growing feelings of disappointment and antagonism toward relationships with men.

Consequences of Heteropessimism

Jacques argued that viral trends like “divorce glow-ups” and anti-male literature have actively widened the divide between the sexes. She explained that the media modern women consume is increasingly hostile toward traditional relationships, pointing to bestselling books like “Yesteryear,” which centers on a “tradwife” influencer. In that novel, men are reduced to lazy or toxic tropes.

The trend coincides with falling U.S. marriage and birth rates. Official U.S. Census Bureau data from December shows that just 47% of American households in 2025 were married couples, down from nearly 66% 50 years ago. Of those married households, only 37% included their own children under age 18, compared to 54% in 1975.

Impact on Women

A 2024 American Family Survey found that 37% of conservative women and 28% of moderate women, between the ages of 18 and 40, reported being “completely satisfied” with their lives. However, liberal women of the same age reported only 12% feeling the same way. Jacques linked the shift directly to liberal ideology, noting that left-leaning Americans choose to opt out of traditional family lifestyles “far more often than conservatives.”

Jacques argued that returning to marriage, not abandoning men altogether, is the remedy for the cultural divide. “That won’t be true for everyone, of course,” Jacques concluded. “But men and women need to find a way back to each other. Discounting marriage won’t get them there.”

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.