Tag Archives: single women

The “Cathy” Comic Strip Was “Sex & The City,” “Bridget Jones,” And “30 Rock” Before Their Time

By now you’ve probably read a news article with the lede: “Ack! The ‘Cathy’ comic strip is ending!” Yes, it’s true. Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite, 60, announced yesterday that she will retire the 34-year-old comic strip in October for the usual reasons: to spend more time with her family and pursue other creative projects.

It’s as good a time as any to put the old girl down. After decades as a swinging desperate single gal, the Cathy character married her cartoon beau, Irving, in 2005. Cathy’s other trials and tribulations — fending off both unwanted pounds and unwanted mothering — are neuroses she’ll apparently never get over.

As stereotypical as the “Cathy” comic strip (which I’ll admit I haven’t read regularly since high school) was regarding single ladies, I’m not about to say “Good riddance!” Yes, she was obsessed with finding a husband. Yes, she was obsessed with her scale. I’ll just say it: she was annoying. But “Cathy” was also pretty groundbreaking. Keep reading »

What Men Don’t Like About Single Women

Every day, single women devote countless hours to pondering the mystery of men. We analyze our behavior, their behavior, vocal nuances, hypothetical scenarios, even the punctuation of a text message, all in an effort to determine what they’re thinking, what they like and don’t like. When things go badly for no apparent reason, we meticulously comb every detail of every interaction for clues about what went wrong. Although remarkably little ink in men’s magazines is devoted to making over women or determining whether oft-cited flaws are terminal, guys have their own (mental) list of women’s undateable traits. Men from around the country agreed: they hate these five things that single women love. Keep reading »

Tina Fey: Not Feminist Enough?

I knew this was going to happen: Tina Fey hosted “Saturday Night Live” this past weekend and yesterday morning, our fellow lady blogs were all abuzz with complain-y posts. Bloggers I read and respect, including Sady Doyle at Feministe, Jessica Grose at Double X, and Irin Carmon at Jezebel, took to their blogs to react to Fey‘s hosting gig. And I understand why women were watching, fingers poised to the keyboard: Whip-smart and witty Fey is a role model for millions of women and girls.

Still, I’ll bet Jude Law didn’t have to deal with being over-analyzed to death the Monday morning after he hosted. Keep reading »

Do You Feel A Social Stigma As A Single Woman?

In a new study, researchers talked to a whopping 32 never-married women over the age of 30 and discovered that some of them feel a social stigma because of their single status. For example, they may feel unwanted pressure at weddings during the bouquet toss, or insecure when “parents and siblings remark about their singlehood and make jokes or rude comments.” Shocking, right? That researchers could find a few women over the age of 30 who feel stigmatized because they’ve never married? Next they’ll be telling us that some women feel bad about their bodies when they gain weight! But here’s something actually kind of interesting the study discovered (if you can call any insight gleaned from talking to 32 women representative of an entire gender): While “single stigma is the worst for women in their mid-20s through mid-30s, women older than age 35 tend to be more content with being single and don’t express as much dissatisfaction as do younger women.” Maybe that’s because they’ve finally told their nosy family members to shut up and mind their own business and they quit participating in silly bouquet tosses at weddings. Keep reading »

Girl Talk: A Single Gal’s First Baby Shower

A few weeks ago I found myself in a peculiar situation. But first, let me give you some background.

I live in New York City but grew up in Akron, Ohio, which is located in a region where landscapes switch between cement tundra and golden cornfields as quickly as one pop song flips to the next on your car radio. In a way, this is emblematic of the people who reside or have resided there: we shift easily between modern-liberal and traditional-conservative thought (hence, a swing state). In my 27 years, I’ve seen this dichotomy play out in two key scenarios: the presidential election of 2004 and a recent trip home to attend my first non-family member baby shower. Keep reading »

Dating Amelia: Happy, Finally, To Be Truly Single

The last time I went on a date was a month ago and it was decidedly “meh.” I deleted my profile off OKCupid because I was sick of getting new messages from guys who were, at best “meh,” at worst psychotic/illiterate/pervy. To be honest, for the first time since my breakup, I have been enjoying being single. And I don’t mean single as in “I’m dating lots of guys and going out all the time like Samantha from ‘Sex and the City,’ woo-hoo!” I mean I am single and enjoying my alone time. I’m having dinner with friends, catching up on movies I’ve missed (I think I am the last of Blockbuster’s customers), riding my bike, and starting up yoga again. Next month I’m going on a yoga/surf retreat in Costa Rica for a week, and when given the option between coed or an all-women retreat, I went with the latter. Coed shouted two things to me — couples (blech) and single dudes looking to show off their shredding abilities. The latter would normally kind of turn me on, but like I said, MEH. Keep reading »

5 Kinda Lame Things Single Women Do That Are Actually Fun

Last night, my guy went to watch Megan Fox’s hot body, I mean, “Transformers 2.” One girlfriend wanted me to grab dinner and another wanted to see a movie.

But the only thing I wanted to do was eat half a bag of potato chips for dinner, flip through Women’s Health and paint my nails with a hot pink polish so bright it would blind a newborn.

So you know what? That’s what I did.

Kinda lame, I know. But I had a really great relationship with myself for those two years that I was single and last night reminded me there are some kinda lame things single women do that are actually really fun. Keep reading »

Girl Talk: The Two Kinds Of Single Woman

In January, I left a live-in relationship after three years. The experience was all the sad adjectives you can imagine. But after the sobbing spells and the heavy drinking, the fog lifted—I was finally single again for the first time since after I graduated college.

Naturally, I expected my single friends to react with equal doses of giddy glee. For the record, I’m not the kind of girl who ditches my ladies when I’m dating someone. But lots of time does free up when you become single. Keep reading »

All My Friends Are Getting Married, And I’m, Well, Not Even Close

In the last month or so, three of my close friends have gotten engaged. Meanwhile, I haven’t had a serious relationship for three years. For some reason, whenever I tell people that another one of my pals has a ring on her finger, they get a sad, sympathetic look on their face, like they’re afraid I might start crying or go into a deep depression. They shouldn’t be concerned, though, because I’m not the least bit jealous. Keep reading »

What Do You Aspire To?

Over half of the women in America are livin’ single. It’s an amazing statistic that shows just how far women have come in the past few decades. We’re not waiting around for a white wedding to jump start our lives anymore. After the jump, tell us what you aspire to in the 21st century. Keep reading »