Happy Singles Week!
The Census Bureau has compiled some important stats on the unmarried population in the US. We are now 95.9 million strong! That is 43% of the adult population in the US. Also, please check out the press release by the Council on Contemporary Families. (Hat tip to Bella DePaulo for these links).
Bella DePaulo kicks off the week with a quiz that takes on the cultural lag between our perceptions of single and unmarried people and our reality. Check it out! It’s rather enlightening.
And, of course, as I mentioned before, there is a blog crawl going on this year organized by Single Women Rule. (Okay, I have to add that I was rather disappointed with the first post: It talks about the dating experience of a single woman. Who cares! Single folks are not (just) about dating, in fact, many of us are single by choice and aren’t even interested in dating. See also number 10 on Bella’s quiz.)
So, go read while I study but most importantly: Enjoy your week!
Update on 9/25:
Bella DePaulo has compiled a list of the good, the bad, and the ugly coverage of National Singles Week. Some of that coverage is in the spirit of Tom Coleman’s original intend with the week: To raise awareness. But a lot of it has morphed into an extreme focus on dating… As if that’s all we’re interested in: to become unsingle…
Update on 9/26
The final blog crawl post is not about dating – it is about being single and happy. Check it out!
Share this post with others:
Thanks, Keysha! I very much appreciate the idea of the Blog Crawl. If nothing else, it raises the awareness about National Singles Week!
I would be honored if you’d pencil me in for 2010!
I echo Vanessa’s sentiments about appreciating National Singles Week!
The SingleWomenRule.com Blog Crawl guest writers had the opportunity to choose their topics, and throughout the week, there will be a variety of posts from folks in various stages of singlehood, ending of course with Dr. DePaulo who doesn’t focus on dating. I, nor host blogs, have edited their writing, and posts appear in no particular order.
The Blog Crawl was not designed to make a political statement but rather give single writers and blogs an opportunity to increase their audience, impart their wisdom, and share their wit with the online singles community.
Thanks for sharing your opinion and I’ll keep it in mind for next year! Can we pencil you in to write a non-dating post in Blog Crawl 2010? 😉
Keysha
Typing of strong and confident women, if you’re in the SF Bay Area, you might be interested in this event, which just came into my email box (sorry for the short notice!).
Please check the website for more information…
Thanks for your note, Vanessa! You are right: dating can be part of the single life. I was just disappointed that this was the first post of the Singles Week crawl because we single women are too often stereotyped as desperately looking for a man. To me, National Singles Week is more political – raising awareness about singlism and matrimania.
First let me say thank you for appreciating the fact a National Singles Week even exists and that some of us are doing our part to shed some light on the single girl lifestyle, while also debunking a few stereotypes in the process.
You are right, all – in fact not even most – facets of single life involve dating, the pursuit of dating, or the agony/ecstacy of dating. It’s just one small slice of the pie. However, it is a slice that most of us can relate to, and it does, for better or worse, provide a lot of us with some pretty amusing stories to tell our friends.
Personally, on my blog, I like to address all kinds of topics relating to simply being a strong and confident woman, regardless of one’s marital status. But I can’t disregard the fact that dating is a common experience – and if it can be used to bring us together – so be it. What you won’t see on my blog however, is how to get a man, keep a man, or die trying.
Vanessa
http://www.thathappenedtome.com