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What It Means When Straight Girls 'Marry'

Decoding today's teenage love vocabulary is a difficult task

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 6, 2010 11:31 AM CST

(Newser) – A generation ago, gay teens hid their sexual orientation from everyone around them—now, straight girls “marry” each other on Facebook and write each other love poems, while parents struggle to catch up with the language of today’s love. “Was there a difference between going out, hanging out, and breaking up?” writes Candy Schulman on Salon. Her 15-year-old daughter simply rolls her eyes, making it clear “I would just never understand.”

Schulman details her confusion: “Going out” doesn’t necessarily mean a teen couple is “going” anywhere—it doesn’t even necessarily include “hanging out” at school—but a Facebook break-up is a sure way to tell that a couple was, at least at one time, “going out.” One phrase she has mastered: Don’t use the term “hooking up”—unless you want “everyone to think sex was involved.”

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Girls today may write each other love poems, get married on Facebook--and still be interested in guys romantically. (©Dan Zen)

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'Chloe was married to Megan once,' my daughter tried to explain. 'Then Megan was married to Olivia. And now Megan wants to 'marry' me again. But we're not married or anything.' - Candy Schulman

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What It Means When Straight Girls 'Marry'