[fotbr]

People (in general) don't like OTHER people doing that. They assume that the person going solo is lonely, sad, and is generally someone to be pitied, mocked, or both. The stigma is not attached by the people going solo, it's attached by everyone else.

[smacktoward]

Assuming that's true -- so what? Who cares what a bunch of people you'll never see or talk to again in your life think about you?

It's like Eleanor Roosevelt said (more or less: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/03/30/not-inferior/): "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Not doing something you want to do because "they'll all laugh at me" is you giving your consent to being made to feel inferior. Their opinion only matters because you make it matter, by caring about it enough to let it stop you from doing something you want to do.

You may feel like their opinion puts shackles around your ankles, but really the shackles only exist in your mind. Stop believing in them and they disappear.

[jabbernotty]

> Their opinion only matters because you make it matter, by caring about it enough to let it stop you from doing something you want to do.

I disagree. If enough people in your community say that you are unwanted, you will become unwanted.