How Do You Feel About "Partner"?

I think partner is most often a cope for long term relationships that aren't progressing as intended.

If marriage is a woman's goal, it gets embarrassing past a certain age after dating for so long to still be a girlfriend. Partner becomes the 'officially more official than girlfriend bc it's been so long and we are SO committed'

When I hear someone mention their "partner" I assume they are gay/lesbian.

I've heard many covert narcissist toxic males refer to women as their 'partner.' Honestly I think it's because they see it as more of a business transactional relationship and also many narc men are either DL or bisexual and they sometimes don't tell the women they've been with a man before and in the queen communities they use the term partner all the time to keep it gender neutral. I think if a so called hetero man should refer to you as gf or wife and keep in gender specific. The last covert narcissist loser I cut off brought me around his close friends group to play dnd (I know I know) and didn't introduce me as his date or anything lmao and brought a bunch of female 'friends' to the game that was at his house. They kept barging in and out of his house during the game like they had keys to his house or something and one made some complimen to my shoes, he was probablypitting her against me too. He also hugged them in front of me to purposely try and make me jealous and insecure and went to their house after alone without me. What a humiliating experience. Gladly I blocked him and my cousin showed up at his job and told him to stay away from his little girl cause he basically helped raise me. Shamed the F*** out of that predator in public and at his job too 😂😂

I started saying "partner" since everyone in my pretentious left leaning academic humanities department says it, but I find it overly pretentious. Also I'm straight, so it sounds a little tryhard - like I want people to think I'm a lesbian or pan or something when in fact I'm dating just another regular old white guy.

"Girlfriend" sounds juvenile though and "significant other" sounds either too formal or reminds me of reddit. I can't think of any option other than "husband" that doesn't sound embarrassing - I wonder what that says about the seriousness about these kinds of relationships until you're married.

Personally I don't like it. For me, I feel like it's a combo of "I'm being intentionally mysterious about my sexual orientation" and like others said, cope for a long-term relationship that's not progressing as desired.

I'll also say that I am not generally a marriage-minded person. Perhaps for the right person, but it's not a goal.

So I expect my "partner" to introduce me as his date, or his girlfriend, because that's what I would be. He can introduce me as "the love of his life" as well. But "partner" just feels so stale to me.

I had a male classmate who called his long-term girlfriend his partner. I think he was trying to hide the fact that he was in a relationship. He often mentioned having to work on a group project with his "partner," giving off the impression that he was just talking about a classmate. When I finally realized he was referring to his girlfriend, I asked him about it and he said that he saw their relationship as a more professional one. I also found out later that they were in an open relationship.

I'm okay with the term girlfriend up until past 2 years in a relationship. After that, it needs to be fiance, then wife IMO. Honestly, 2 years is really stretching it for me; it seems really silly after a while to be a forever gf.... been there, done that.

I use partner to describe... well, a partner, but when I don't know they actual status. I don't want to say husband or wife if they are unmarried. Once I know what the official term is I use that. I like partner because it has no implications imo

Everyone in my industry uses the term “partner.” It’s probably because so many many people in my industry are gay but even the people in heterosexual relationships do it. I kinda like it because I don’t really care for “girlfriend/boyfriend” as it sounds juvenile. But you need to call the person something between agreeing to exclusivity and marriage. For me that’s a major period of the vetting process and I think it’s the most appropriate term until they get upgraded to fiancé. Also for women who’ve decided that marriage is not for them, but still want long term, committed relationship. I can’t think of any other term that is a better fit. “Significant other” comes to mind, but it’s really just a synonym for “partner”