Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out
on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Edited by Diane Mapes
Are single women happy individualists? Neurotic man hunters? Crazed cat ladies? Are they confused, or content? Bitter, or better off? No one seems to know. The popular media give us shoe shopaholics, ditzy desperados, and wannabe brides forever making cow eyes at The Bachelor. But what do single women have to say about their own lives?
With sass, humor, and style, Single State of the Union paints a provocative, playful, and complex portrait of today’s single woman, taking on such topics as:
• sex and the single girl
• single motherhood
• buying a house without a spouse
• faux boyfriends
• cohabitation hesitation
• single women in the media
Written by an impressive roster of single (and some formerly single) women, this collection portrays single women as individuals whose lives extend well beyond Match.com and Manolo Blahniks.
So listen up, Carrie. Attention, Bridget. It’s time for the rest of us to be heard.
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Contributors on “the single life”:
It’s not the concept of marriage I have a problem with. I’d like to get married, too. A couple times. It’s the actual wedding that pisses me off.
—Chelsea Handler, “Thunder”
The empty side of the bed does not fart in its sleep.
—Laurie Notaro, “The Speech”
I was happy being single, but not happy alone. I needed someone to love and I was ready. But not ready enough for another dog. To his credit, Jim later said, “I knew my days were numbered when you got the rat.”
—Rachel Toor, “Me and I”
In a world where everyone was in a rush to get the picket fence and 2.673 kids, I stood out a like an unmown, dandelion-riddled lawn with a rusted-out muscle car on cinderblocks smack dab in the middle. Because I’ve never gotten engaged or hitched within three weeks of meeting someone, friends called me immature, commitment-phobic, a late bloomer, a player, a childhood-divorce casualty, or sometimes “a total freaking guy.”
—Michelle Goodman, “House Without a Spouse””
