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When my wife and I started dating back in 1999, she used the term for a short while. Her rational was that "girlfriend" sounded like a childish and immature title to be assigned to a professional woman with career and means of supporting herself. We were in fact "partners" in the relationship where we shared duties and expenses. It always sounded funny to me so I never used it. Apparently she stopped using it after I met a few acquaintances of hers, who were suprised becuase they were expecting me to be a woman, based on her talking about "her parner." That was 20+ years ago though, and "partner" really was mostly used by same sex couples. Today it's just more widely used to cover any and all situations, though I still am left wondering "oh, are you gay?"
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