Persecution of Single Women

They should start issuing arrest warrants for being single now, especially since public heckling of the single woman has become an acceptable process. Miss Manners deemed it inappropriate to poke fun at overweight people, the mentally challenged, physically handicapped, and even smokers so everybody decided to give it a go at single women. We are, after all, easy targets - alone, susceptible to depression with the tendency to lead slightly "unorthodox" lifestyles. Who could blame us? Unburdened by the pressure of screaming children, mounting bills, irresponsible spouses and the regrettable series of "what ifs", as a bulls-eye we are rather appealing.

Burned at the stake for being single, I try to explain to friends and family alike that this is not a "lifestyle choice". "Darling, this is so unhealthy and unnecessary. Please fall in love, or let us find you somebody to spend the rest of your life with," my mother laments at the breakfast table every morning while twisting her wedding ring. My parents have been in union for twenty and six years, my mother agreeing to marry my father at the age of twenty-one.

According to them, I am reaching my expiry date. Emile Durkheim in his famous book, Social Construction of Reality, mentioned how basic reciprocal roles become habitualized and institutionalized over the period of time, which he aptly termed "social constructionism". I suppose this -ism might be able to explain how and how couples tend to view the single individual. With coupling up, a certain sense of conformity, stability and certainty settles in, and the "single" is perceived as the polar opposite, or the mysterious "other".

This leads me to the inexcusable assumption that the single woman is easily promiscuous and lacks the appropriate morals to maintain a steady relationship. A "How are you?" to an old friend who was recently engaged to be married warranted a "How is the dating going, wink wink. Tell me your sexy stories." This left me not only offended, but slightly shaken. I live by the adage, 'A person is only exceeded by their reputation', and this was definitely not good news. I informed her that my attendance at her wedding would be tentative.

More on the alleged sexed up behavior of single women, according to another source is if I were to ever to star in any movie, it would be titled, "Ketki's Sex and the City". Even better, now I feel like a real movie celebrity who is getting to star in her very own pornographic blockbuster. "Hitting Adult Film Stores near you!"

I truly am astonished with the general assumption of the single woman's promiscuity. Perhaps popular media such as Sex and the City has been a major contributing factor towards creating these negative preconceived notions, but are people seriously too daft to distinguish between television and reality? Perhaps couples in bubble-wrap might be interested to know that there are a few of us have a slightly more traditional outlook, where we equate sex with intimacy, consider self-respect a part of our lifestyle, and lead seemingly ordinary lives with regular jobs, ordinary friends and healthy hobbies. Not every woman can be the man Samantha Jones is.

If life truly were like a Sex and the City episode for the single woman, I probably would be clad in Blahnik all day, get to date ridiculously rich financiers, live in a chic Park Avenue apartment and never worry about downing high calorie martinis. And chances are, just as I am now, still be searching for my happy ending.