What We Get Wrong When We Talk About Single Women
If you’re one of the growing contingent of single people in this country, and you’re hoping to feel empowered by modern discourse, you might be disappointed.
I t seems single women have been having a moment lately.
Apparently, there are more of us than ever before — and everyone wants to talk about it. If you Google “single women,” you’ll find headlines like “The Single American Woman,” Why Single Women Are More Powerful in America Than Ever Before,” and “The Radical Power of American Single Women.” Meanwhile, some very high-profile books — most notably Rebecca Traister’s All The Single Ladies and Kate Bolick’s Spinster — have influenced the national conversation surrounding what it means to be a single woman in America today . . . and what this means, in turn, for our society writ large.
At first, this kind of coverage might seem encouraging, if not inspiring. Single women being talked about in the media alongside words such as “powerful”? What progress!
But if you’re one of the growing contingent of single people in this country, and you’re hoping to feel empowered by this discourse, you might be disappointed. Because as much as the conversation has moved forward, it remains, in…
