So Glamour magazine tells you you’re supposed to wear sexy underwear even if you’re staying in for the night, and your mother says you’re supposed to keep an open mind — even if that means going on a blind date with a family friend who you’re pretty sure used to get high on cleaning products — and people keep telling you you’re the crazy one?

Lesson #48 – You’re not crazy, you’re just single.

As single girls, every now and then someone is bound to call you crazy. Sometimes it’s warranted, like when you’re screaming at your ex outside a bar only to realize it’s just a guy who looks like your ex from far away (and with drunk goggles on), and sometimes it’s not-so-warranted, like when you pass on the party everyone’s been talking about simply because you don’t feel like putting on makeup. I mean, there is, after all, a difference between crazy and lazy. Needless to say, at some point in our single lives, we’re going to feel like we’ve not only lost control, but are spinning further and further away from reality. Read More »

K-I-S-S-I-N-G (on camera!).

Are Hilary and Mike in for wedded bliss?

An open letter to hamburger sliders. Nom.

Sorry, younger sibs.

Who’s presenting at the Emmy’s?

10 lessons from single women in movies.

This will make you happy.

Meet Lori Gottlieb. She’s a 40-year-old single mother—she got artificially inseminated because she wanted to have a baby but didn’t have a boyfriend—who has discovered the secret to why more women aren’t married: their standards aren’t low enough.

No, seriously. Gottlieb recently expanded this 2008 article from the Atlantic into a full-length book called Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. Her basic premise? Modern women all have “checklists” for their potential life partners, and we’re too quick to dismiss guys who don’t necessarily satisfy all of those requirements. So in order to avoid being single and, therefore, miserable in our 40s, women in their 20s like you and me should forget searching for Mr. Right and, instead, make do with Mr. Good Enough.

Don’t worry if this advice sounds ridiculously retro—Gottlieb freely admits that she’s telling women to ignore modern ideas about male/female relations because, as she says at the beginning of her book’s third chapter, “feminism has completely f*cked up my love life.” All that talk about “freedom” and “choice”—yes, she actually puts those words in quotation marks—is a bunch of hooey because, as opposed to what Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan would have you believe, women really do need to get married and have lots of babies in order to be fulfilled: “The truth was, every one of my single friends wanted to be married, but none of us would admit how badly we craved it for fear of sounding weak or needy or, God forbid, antifeminist,” Gottlieb writes.

Excuse me for just a minute—AAAARRRRGGGGG!!! This crap is so ludicrous that I can only express my anger in capital letters and multiple exclamation points. I can immediately think of about fifty things that are totally wrong with Gottlieb’s thought process, but I’ll spare all of you and just mention what I think are her most glaring errors: Read More »

This Week’s Article: Why Do Single Women Like Taken Men? by askmen.com.

This week’s article lists a number of reasons why women are (supposedly) attracted to taken men. Let’s see what they have to say…

AskMen says: “In the Garden of Eden, Eve sinks her teeth into the one piece of fruit that God instructed her to avoid — so began a long line of women who wanted, oh so badly, what they could not have.”

I Say: Actually, I’m pretty sure Eve convinced Adam to eat the forbidden fruit instead of biting into it herself. Nevertheless, I don’t really find bible references to be the most accurate explanations of human behavior.

AskMen Says: “Significant others are a reflection of the people they date. That’s why it’s in a girl’s best interest to act like her boyfriend’s PR rep: to mention whenever possible that he studied at Harvard — oh, and he plays in a band. When she boasts, her listeners see him through the rose-colored glasses that she wears.”

I Say: Of coarse, the only way women can make themselves seem like decent human beings to to boast to others about the great things their boyfriend does. Read More »

Ever notice how you always see a hot chick/ugly dude couple, but never see a smokin’ dude with a non-so-smokin’ lady?

There’s a reason, ladies, and it has to do with science.

Researchers at the University of California recently studied the preferences of single women and found that women prefer brains over biceps, something I have been telling people for years. However, this finding doesn’t only apply to long term relationships; when lookin’ for a little late night action (read: one night stand), women also tend to go for the more intelligent men.

When considering evolution, it makes sense that women would want to settle down with a smart man: so they could potentially produce smarter children. But researchers were shocked about the one night stand situation. I am not.

We all know there is that awkward time – usually around 30-60 minutes – between taking the man home for a little fun and actually having said fun. A time that is filled with awkward conversation about your classes, the pictures on your wall and…I don’t know….politics?

And who wants to have conversation with an idiot?

Also, a smarter man is probably more likely to know how to please a woman, as opposed to a moron who can’t tell a va-jay from an elbow.

I’m not sure this study was really necessary (I mean, duh), but it does help me prove to men that women aren’t as concerned with looks as they are. Oh, and it gives hope to those computer engineers out there that they too can get a little late night booty.

I often contemplate moving to New York City. Born and raised in Boston, I love this city, but I sometimes dream of something bigger. In New York City, there’s always something going on and people are everywhere. I’m currently single, so I really have nothing holding me down. Why not, right? Except for one small problem: I don’t really want to remain single. Forever. Which could very well be the case if I move to New York.

In his new book, Who’s Your City, Richard Florida examines which American cities have surpluses of single men or women and what that means for the country…and us.

Basically, Richard Florida is telling us that New York City girls are screwed. Attention NYC girls: If you already have a boyfriend, hold on tight. And if you don’t, you might want to consider moving. In New York City, single girls outnumber single men by 210,000. That’s a whole lot of competition. Read More »

I have said before that I have no problem with my single status, but that doesn’t mean that I am ready to spend the rest of my life that way. I love the companionship and comfort that comes with a relationship, the warm fuzzy feelings, the knowledge that someone out there finds you completely perfect.

Recently, as I lay on my couch watching yet another What Not To Wear rerun, I realized that I am finally ready for something more than weeknights alone in my apartment and weekends spent catching up on my sleep. I don’t know if I necessarily want to find the man I am going to marry, but I have had enough time to figure out who I am as a single woman (boring) and want to get out and meet some new people.

So, I began hitting the dating scene (internet and all). I approached people, emailed people and began talking with some really great guys. I was all over it. And then, as things began to move forward and the guys showed interest back, I started to freak out. Read More »

So, you’ve been single for a while. A long while. And it’s starting to get to you. Of course, you’re still a confident and amazing person. You’ve got friends, you’re friendly, you’re good looking, and smart to boot. You’re a cool person.

But for some reason, you just can’t nab a great guy.

It’s the weirdest thing. You go out to bars or clubs, get attention from dudes, have dated around and maybe even pulled out a condom or two, but none of these prospects turn into anything other than forgettable names or slight embarrassments.

Maybe you used to have a long term guy, or maybe you’ve never been in anything really serious, but either way, you’re now in your twenties and clinically single. It’s not the Sex in the City single, either. Those women never went through the 3, 4, 6 month dry spells some of us have been through. They spent maybe a week, two weeks tops, without a man, but the show could never go very long without Miranda or Samantha banging some dude they met at an ice cream parlor or incredibly fancy martini bar (this sort of thing doesn’t happen to the average New Yorker. At least not to me. The only people I meet in ice cream parlors are babies and their old nannies).

No matter how many girl-power chats you have with your friends, or self-date nights with a movie and Newman’s Own, you can’t seem to shake the feeling that something’s wrong with you. You have friends who are dating. You have friends who are getting married. You see ugly people together on the street all the time! What’s going on here? Read More »