Victorian Era

During the Victorian Era, the term confirmed bachelor often was used as a euphemism for a gay man. But the wider acceptance of gay people and same-sex relationships in recent years has made this historic usage obsolete. Meanwhile, the term "confirmed bachelor" now refers just as much to heterosexual men who show no interest in marriage or classes of committed relationship as it does to homosexual or bisexual men. The reasons for men choosing to be bachelors vary. In recent years more men in North America are deciding that they are happier to remain single and prefer never to marry. See the marriage strike.