Fighting Singlism with Satire, and More: The Singles Collection 2nd Installment

It's time for the second installment of the Singles Collection. (The first one was here.) This spring collection is brought to you for the usual reason - I've been accumulating so many blog-worthy notes about single life that I just need to list some of them with only brief comments, rather than trying to develop full posts about each. I'll return to the series I've left hanging (such as the one about making friends) soon.

• Now here's a trend I can get behind - satirizing the belief that single people just can't be happy. And, as an extra special perk for all the readers who rightfully note that there is not enough out there about single men, this tasty treat is for you. How's this for a great title: "Used-car-driving, non-property-owning, unmarried man somehow happy; experts baffled." Thanks to Nicky Grist, Executive Director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, for the heads-up on this one.

• Here's a great title of an anthology by single women: I Didn't Work This Hard Just to Get Married, by Nika Beamon. What makes this stand out from the rest (among other things) is that it highlights the voices of single black women. So much of singles writing is by and about whites, that it is really nice to have this collection out there. (I will write a whole post on this book eventually but I wanted to give you a sneak preview.)

• I've had this next item in my "for future posts" folder since October. It is from an advice column published on Salon.com. A 35-year old single woman writes in to say that she's been dating someone for 10 months, and he's pressuring her to get more serious. She has fun with him, but notes that "he doesn't really feel like home to me." She asks whether she should pursue "the fabled wonders of coupledom" anyway. You can read the entire answer here. I'll just pull out my favorite part: "I suggest that you declare yourself unabashedly, consciously, deliberately single. Not single until the right man comes along. Not single as in poor lonesome spinster who can't land a man. Single as in free, self-sufficient, independent, committed to growth, happy, and OK with who I am."

• An Australian reader sent me this e-mail telling me about her new online community and inviting you to join: "My name is Iolanda and I'm happily single and emailing you from Australia. Your blog is one of a few I've recently discovered after the Aussie press mentioned some of them a few weeks ago. I was SO pleased to see things online written by and for single .... however after a long time surfing the internet I couldn't find an online community for single women to join so we could create a community of "like-minded" souls!! I really wanted to be able to communicate with others who would be able to know how it feels, give advice or just "listen" when I have a question or comment about something particular to being "single". In the past few posts you mention a topic which is close to my heart - how do you make new friends when you are single and what types of friends are best for single people? Plus your posts are always a good talking point ..... I have over 10 years experience in either being the owner/moderator or member of numerous online email communities and I decided that I'd set one up myself." Click here to sign up for foot loose femails.

• The article Iolanda referred to (above) was in the Sydney Morning Herald. Fellow singles bloggers from Onely, Singletude, and Singlutionary will be proud to discover that they are all mentioned in the story titled "Single and loving it."

• Speaking of Singlutionary, last time I blogged about some new single voices, Singlutionary posted a comment letting us all know about one I had missed, The Spinster Chronicles. Thanks, and enjoy!