Blaglash.com

Single women are popular, and always have been. By popular I don’t mean that people like them, I mean that the media does. The media is actually OBSESSED with single women, and cater to them as a demographic and as subject matter. The reasons probably abound, but my single-issue theory is this:

Single women have the potential to have sex with more people than any other demographic. They are therefore “sexy” which means they are interesting. Not to mention sexiness = profitability.

We can use the popular feminist traiblazers in the show Sex and the City. These women were single and attractive, and have been the subjects of intense scrutiny, both as characters and as real people. However, the show waned and ended as soon as the main characters all settled down in committed relationships. Fascination with these “women” was at its peak when they were all single and ready to mingle; to mingle bodily fluids!

People have been focusing on single women as entertainment for centuries. Jane Austen, in many of her novels, writes from the perspective of maidens who are looking for husbands. The trials and tribulations of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice are an obvious example of this, as Austen follows Lizzie on her quest to find a husband. Even though outwardly, much like the SATC chicks, Lizzie claims to be fullfilled without a husband, the reader still finds marriage to be foremost on her mind, much like Carrie Bradshaw. In Emma, the same theme is prominent. Another commonality between Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Sex and the City is that the stories all end when the protagonists find true love.

Movies are made, called romantic comedies, with the same flow chart of plot, theme and characters. They’re becoming boring in their predicibility, and this is coming from someone who cried during 13 going on 30. Commercials, tv shows, chick lit, websites. All of these things reflect the same idea: Women are interesting when they want to get laid/married.

What’s my point? Instead of making remakes of the same idea involving essentially the same characters, we should be focusing on expanding our idea of feminine entertainment. I mean, there are already hours and hours of SATC on dvd and now they’re coming out with a movie? Women can be more than plot devices resulting in marriage or sex, more than caricatures of the four women in Sex and the City, and the media should be reflecting this.

Why? it makes us dumber. It’s annoying and it’s boring. Let’s move on, shall we?