The Love Jones Cohort: Single and Living Alone (SALA) by Choice, Circumstance or Both? Is Marriage the Option?

Abstract:This article centers on the Love Jones Cohort, revealing the ways in which Black women understand and navigate their single status. The term "Love Jones Cohort" originates from the movie Love Jones (1997) and incorporates the common demographic term "cohort", which refers to a band of people. Characters in Love Jones are young, educated, Black professionals, who have never been married, are child-free, and live alone or with unmarried non-romantic friends. Following this movies' character demographics, this study draws from a Black feminist and intersectional analytical framework; and engages singlehood scholarship and aspects of politics of respectability through semi–structured interviews with Black women in the Love Jones Cohort. The two overarching research questions include: how do Black American women in the Love Jones Cohort view their single and living alone (SALA) status (choice, circumstance, or both); and in what ways do these Black women navigate their SALA status? Two main implications arise from this study. First, Black women's membership in the Love Jones Cohort can be due to choices, circumstances, or in many cases a combination of the two. Thus, to make judgments of their status based solely on individual behavior and without looking to structural context is shortsighted. Second, although Black women in the Love Jones Cohort might face mental health and well-being challenges, they have developed a variety of strategies prioritizing their safety.