Last week, Newsweek published a follow up to their two decade old article on single women of a certain age and their likelihood of getting married. I was only 10 then, so I didn't quite feel the immediate uproar to the infamous line "that a single 40-year-old woman is 'more likely to be killed by a terrorist' than to ever marry, the odds of which the researchers put at 2.6 percent." That's just plain mean. For single 30 year olds, the chances were 20%. The aftereffects of this article always hovered in the background as I got older, probably because of Susan Faludi's fame and references to these stats in movies like Sleepless in Seattle or shows like Sex in the City.
I still hate that I'm part of this statistical data and quantified, but I must say I'm relieved that Newsweek decided to follow up with these women and admit that they were wrong. Who knows how many insecure women were scared into settling because of this original article? Who knows how many frustrated women were spiraled into depression? It pisses me off. Maybe now it'll give some hope to a new generation of insecure and frustrated women.
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"You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one." - Imagine, John Lennon
"You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one." - Imagine, John Lennon
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- Whatchamacalit
- I wanted to stop growing up when I was 6. My favorite inanimate objects are my Tivo, Apple TV, Kindle, car, TV, bed, and Roomba - in that order. By nature, I'm an idealist, optimist, and a romantic - I'm working my way down to a reality check.
3 comments:
i got my "newsweek" last night as well & read that. i was really upset by that original statement. i had heard/seen it in "sex & the city" also, but never knew where it came from. i thought it was another urban myth.
anyway, i picked it up & (probably too emphatically) asked my counterpart, "do guys NOT care about getting married that much? or are they just picking on women?!" he gave me a scared, baffled look & said, "it says that that statement was made 20 years ago," while he pretended to watch t.v. in hopes that i would stop raising my voice.
then i asked him, "are there THAT much more women than men?" he said, "20 years ago, it was after the vietnam war. many men were killed off." hmmm...
The survey seems to have forgotten my superficial male 'friends' that weren't able to work through their difficulties with their first wives and have moved on to 2nd and 3rd victims leaving children in their wake. So much for stupid surveys designed by stupid pop journalists and psychologists.
i'll have to read those articles when i have more time. like, maybe when i'm 40. :-) sidenote: ktla chopped up the "sex & the city" series finale into something awful last night, eesh.
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