The term is doing the rounds to define those who are choosing friendships over romantic relationships as their most significant other. But what could a platonic life partnership mean for your long-term wellbeing?
Aime Mason Eden isn’t drawn to many people. But the first time she noticed Aluna Conrad at the gym, she was spellbound. Aluna emanated something both subtle and special: a nurturing, feminine energy that Aime felt compelled to cloak herself in. After finishing up their separate workouts one day, they got to chatting (Aluna insists it was her who first struck up the conversation). Their connection – instant and intense – crackled bright and they wound up breezing through several hours of fluidly moving patter, while sitting in Aime’s car.
It was an encounter that marked the beginning of an ‘effortlessly close’ relationship. So close that, two years later, just before March 2020, Aluna moved into Aime’s three-bedroom house in Sedona, Arizona, the smallish town steeped in New Age spiritual culture in which they lived. Before long, they’d fused their experience as a web designer (Aluna) and a project manager (Aime) to create an apparel brand; a shared business account followed. And during the long locked-down evenings that followed, they whiled away the time shooting the shit, just as they had on that first encounter.
They describe their pairing as having a yin and yang quality. Aime, 31, is analytical, while Aluna, 35, is emotional; Aime dresses in black, Aluna prefers beige. Theirs is a joining of worlds that feels like it was fated. There’s only one way in which this relationship differs from your typical storybook narrative. Aime and Aluna aren’t involved romantically. They sleep in separate bedrooms. They don’t have sex – at least, not with one another. Rather, they’re engaged in a radical, intimate friendship known as a ‘platonic life partnership’ (PLP), and they’re part of a growing movement.
STATE OF THE UNION
More and more people are pausing to wonder if the western ideal of the nuclear family is the best thing for them. Multi-family households are the fastest growing household type over the two decades up to 2019, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The decline of the heterosexual marriage can be traced back even further; rates are currently at their lowest since records began in 1862. Alongside this demographic trend – or perhaps because of it – is the erosion of the assumption that a woman will become a mother: 18% of those who turned 45 last year were child-free, compared with 13% of their mother’s generation. In a 2020 survey from the sex-toy brand Lelo, meanwhile, 28% of respondents said they would consider a polyamorous relationship. Such statistics paint a picture of a culture of curiosity; one in which millennials and Gen Z women are questioning
