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Contents 1 Definition 2 Conflicted Bachelor? 3 Love Shy 4 Not all bachelors are homosexual 5 Wikipedia is not a dictionary. 6 Knight bachelor 7 Restrict to marriageable? 8 30th Birthday Custom in Germany 9 how do you say this word? 10 List of Bachelors 11 "citation needed" 12 Jesus Christ a bachelor? 13 The List 14 Confirmed Bachellor

[edit] Definition

"Thus, a broad grey, unnamed status has emerged between the concepts of "bachelor" and "married man.""

Cohabitation, common-law. These are two names off the top of my head. Can something that has existed for the history of humanity be said to have recently emerged? Can a "status" exist between two "concepts?" This sentance is weird and I submit it be striken, or at least modified.

[edit] Conflicted Bachelor?

Someone explain or delete "Chris Bartlett, conflicted bachelor." 71.156.37.155 (talk) 17:13, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Love Shy

Not applicable to Marriage Strike. The Strike is about the reaction against the persecution of men via misandristic draconian pro-feminist societies.

[edit] Not all bachelors are homosexual

Most of us don't care - just accept that you're gay and be happy with yourself. Seriously. 130.54.130.229 12:33, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

• Right. Edited that one out. 213.84.29.60 07:54, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes I am happy, but how can I accept that I'm gay when I find myself bringing home women to my bachelor pad? Nice try, however I could accuse someone of being a closet homosexual hiding behind their matrimonial status, but that would be hitting too close to the truth. Seriously. Capper01 04:54, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

There are many thousands of bachelors who are 100% straight. There are thousands of homosexuals who marry, often to try to pretend to people that they are straight. Whether or not a person is or was married to someone of the opposite sex does not prove their orientation. That some people use the term 'confirmed bachelor' as a euphemism for a homosexual man gives the false impression to some that a man who has never married, especially one who does not want to, must be a homo. Michael Winner is 100% straight, has had lots of women throughout his adult life; he has never married. Werdnawerdna (talk) 22:23, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia is not a dictionary.

I mean, one doesn't go to an encyclopedia to find out the meaning of the word "bachelor"; one uses a dictionary for that. So, is there anything else we can say about bachelors or bachelorhood that might properly go in an encyclopedia? --LMS

Yup. 68.101.130.214 (talk) 09:48, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Knight bachelor

Should not be restricted to historical as knights bachelor still exist. --Daniel C. Boyer 14:15, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Restrict to marriageable?

I added "but marriageable" since, in modern usage, a monk, Catholic priest, or underage boy cannot be a bachelor. This of course makes "eligible bachelor" a pleonasm. The category "bachelor" is also fuzzy at the edges: is a man in a long-term committed relationship a "bachelor"? One would normally say no. See http://www.d.umn.edu/~dcole/bachelor.htm --Macrakis 06:00, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Yes, but society knows that not all bachelors are worth marrying, hence the qualifier. A rich man and a homeless guy might be equally available, but that doesn't mean they're both eligible -- or fit -- for marriage, if you're a woman. 69.239.236.37 15:03, 14 July 2007 (UTC) To restrict the definition by a man's wealth is ludicrous. Whether or not a man fits the description of a bachelor has nothing to do with how much money he has. It does have a major bearing on how many women would want to marry him, and although it is a major factor, it is not the only one. Thousands of poor men marry every year. In any case, different people have different opinions as to where the line is drawn between poor and not poor. In addition, it is not rare for poor people's finances to improve significantly, nor for rich people's to decline considerably. Werdnawerdna (talk) 23:03, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

It has been argued that 'marriageable' is part of the connotation, rather than denotation of 'bachelor'. Is the Pope a bachelor? Probably, but he's hardly a good example. This approach would be a prototype-style cognitive linguistic approach. Western Philosophy has traditionally had problems with defining this kind of word, exactly because of its fuzzy edges. Perhaps, "but marriageable" could be replaced by, "but of marriageable age" following the OED. But then, this isn't a dictionary. --Peter 12:59, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 30th Birthday Custom in Germany

Someone has written in the wiki: "In some cultures, the 'punishment' of bachelors is no more than a teasing game. In small towns in Germany, for example, men who were still unmarried on their 30th birthday were made to sweep the stairs of the town hall until kissed by a virgin. This 'punishment' has now died out."

I don't think this is entirely true, because I observed this custom in Münster in May 2006.

I agree. This custom is still in use. I personally know it from Braunschweig and Göttingen. Therefore it is also not limited to small towns. I would transfer the whole paragraph into present and would delete the last sentence. --68.76.79.86 01:36, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] how do you say this word?

I would find it helpful if Wikipedia would include a phonetic pronunciation of the word. Recently I and some others were discussing this word and were unable to agree as to how to say it. I got out my copy of "the New Lexicon Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language - Canadian Edition(1988)) but could not even find the word Bachelor in it! Is it pronounced [bache]-[lor] 2 syllables(silent 'e'), or [bach]- [e] - [lor] 3 syllables? Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.180.252.69 (talk) 20:43, 16 April 2007 (UTC).

Both versions are in current usage. You can't really say that one is right and the other is wrong, since they're both acceptable, like "farther" and "further". 69.239.236.37 15:06, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of Bachelors

I have some problems with this section. For one, it's very long and little more than a list. Second, it's a big target for vandalism/misinformation. Finally, the word "famous" is very subjective and very broad. Is this section really necessary? I'm thinking it should be removed, or perhaps if anyone feels it's important it can be turned into a category into which the men listed can be filed instead. Diabloman 17:20, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

• I agree with you completely. It should be removed. There is no point to this list; it serves no informative purpose.Busillis (talk) 05:45, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

I know. I was under the impression that it was for deceased men who never married, and yet Matthew McConaughey and Matt Dillon are listed in it? Must have been vandalism. Chantessy 15:44, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I think men who died bachelors deserve to be listed, as the vast majority of adults do get married at some point. However, I believe that no one currently alive should be here as there is always the possibility that they will get married in the future. There is also the problem of some living people appearing in the "lifetime" section and others appearing in the "living" section, which is clearly inconsistent.76.241.88.94 (talk)

I agree. "Famous" dead bachelors should be listed here but there is no point in putting living ones here, since they may get married at any time. And those who died unexpectedly and young (such as Heath Ledger) are not relevant because they might have married had they lived a long time. Those of interest are those who lived to old age and never married. 68.101.130.214 (talk) 09:47, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Section needs major cleanup. Chantessy 17:35, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

The section's name has been improved to notable bachelors, and everyone on the list has their own Wikipedia page. Therefore, they are all notable in Wikipedia's opinion; that's what matters here. The new title also prevents any disputes as to whether or not they qualify as famous. Both living and dead bachelors are, and should be, listed; they fit the description. In the event of any of the living bachelors on the list marrying, they should be removed from it. To restrict the list only to the dead, and/or to the elderly, should not happen. A 30 or 40 year-old never-married man is just as much a bachelor as a man aged 70 or 80 who has never married. To speculate as to whether an unmarried man will marry in the future, or whether a person who died relatively young would have, if he had lived considerably longer, is redundant. In every case of a man dying a bachelor, that fact can never change; he should be on the list. In the case of unmarried, living men, they should be on the list, and each one only removed from it if he marries. Werdnawerdna (talk) 22:53, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Why has the list been put into alphabetial order of first name? They should be listed alphabetically by surname, as is standard and expected for a list of names. It is also the way in which the list of names on the bachelorette article are listed. Werdnawerdna (talk) 23:10, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "citation needed"

What is up with all the "citation needed" refuse cluttering this article? How can one cite the colloquial usage of a word? The citation is the entire library of current-era texts. How's that for a citation? :P --Ayeroxor 15:14, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jesus Christ a bachelor?

Whilst the official line is that he never married, many people, including some experts, claim that Mary Magdalene was his widow. Evidence for this hypothesis is her close presence to him for so much of the latter part of his life, and her presence near him during and shortly after his death. It is unlikely that one woman, other than his wife, would have spent so much time around him, and for him to still be a hugely and widely respected rabbi in that era, in that part of the world. In addition, it would have been rare in that era and area, for a thirtysomething rabbi to be a bachelor - it would have been 'frowned upon'. The official line that Christian organisations state is that he definitely never married, and he was definitely celibate. They explain it by saying that he was a unique case, and never had any sexual relationships, in order to entirely devote his life to religion. However, he had an ordinary life until he was about 29, only spending the last (roughly) four years of his life doing what made him well-known. That contradicts not only that, but their obviously (scientifically proven) false claim that he was the son of God. Werdnawerdna (talk) 23:49, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The List

What is the point of this list? This is ridiculous. There is a huge, huge list of famous bachelors, but more importantly, this list serves zero purpose. You can incorporate a few of these people in the discussion and the list section should be removed! I think this kind of list is inherently unencylopedic. Busillis (talk) 05:44, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Done. -- The Red Pen of Doom 13:25, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Confirmed Bachellor

I'd be good to elaborate on that term. I find it surising that it was used to refer to gay men in the Victorian era. I thought confirmed bachelor always meant a straight man who won't marry soon, specially in past eras. I also thought that whenever it was used to describe a gay man, it meant the person saying it is somewhat hiding that person's homosexuality. I'm confused.--201.155.3.160 (talk) 03:02, 4 December 2008 (UTC)