Posted on 05/19/2010 1:17:00 PM PDT by reaganaut1
When does a woman go from being single to unmarried?
As my friend Carol Lee, a Politico reporter, observes: “It seems like a cruel distinction and terrifying crossover.”
Single carries a connotation of eligibility and possibility, while unmarried has that dreaded over-the-hill, out-of-luck, you-are-finished, no-chance implication. An aroma of mothballs and perpetual aunt.
Men, generally more favored by nature as they age, can be single at all ages. But often, for women, once you’re 40 or 50, or simply beyond childbearing age, you’re no longer single. You’re unmarried — meaning it isn’t your choice to be alone. There are post-50 exceptions. Consider celebrity examples: Samantha in “Sex and the City,” Dana Delany, Susan Sarandon and Madonna are seen as sexily single.
But if you have a bit of a weight problem, a bad haircut, a schlumpy wardrobe, the assumption is that you’re undesirable, unwanted — and unmarried.
White House officials were so eager to squash any speculation that Elena Kagan was gay that they have ended up in a pre-feminist fugue, going with sad unmarried rather than fun single, spinning that she’s a spinster.
You’d think that they could come up with a more inspiring narrative than old maid for a woman who may become the youngest Supreme Court justice on the bench.
In the initial accounts about Kagan, she seemed to have an appealing swagger, posing as a judge for her yearbook, bragging about what a “famously excellent teacher” she was, bantering with the Supreme Court justices as solicitor general, smoking cigars, drinking beer and playing poker. And she had an endearingly ditzy streak: One friend told how she would get so consumed with work, she sometimes parked her car and left it running all night.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This woman is making 6/7 figures working for a paper that is going broke!
Have a nice day. :)
Does anyone conceivably believe that?
All I know is that November 18, 2000 is when CZJ went from being single to being married.
Anybody who finds that "endearing" is welcome to it.
Beaten by 25 short seconds.
At 26, an unmarried woman becomes a prespinster. At thirty she achieves spinsterhood.
SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan has been reported to do this. Dowd is probably talking about her and giving her a plug in the column. Sneaky push-propaganda.
One night, I got so over consumed with Johnnie Walker Black, that I parked my car, left it running and couldn't find it.
So, I believe that she left her car running while being consumed all night.
REJECTED
Try droping the seething, dripping man-hatred.
Maurine = Maureen (d’oh!)
Are you kidding me!! Those birds stopped being "sexily" anything decades ago.. if they ever were! Wow you live in dillusional land if you think guys are fantasizing about either one of those.
At least you spelled it with the “a” — you’d not believe the hay my little brother made when I got a letter addressed to “Murine” — long before the eyedrops pronunciation was around. :(
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