Honorary Onely: Trisha Yearwood October 15, 2008
Posted by Onely in Honorary Onely Awards, music review, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, We like. . ..Tags: george w. bush, honorary onely, not a bad thing, ok with being single, trisha yearwood
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Yes, I know that Trisha Yearwood is married to Garth Brooks, so she’s not technically Onely. That’s why we are creating the Honorary Onely award. We figure we can make coupled people Honorary Onelies if they exhibit a profound understanding of the Onely ethic (or if they give us a large donation). If Yale can give George W. Bush an honorary degree even though he is, technically, an Idiot, then we can make Trisha an Honorary Onely. (more…)
Pop Culture, Scourge of the Onelys part 7×777: Completely Unscientific Onely Poll for Lori Gottlieb and The Nation October 7, 2008
Posted by Onely in As If!, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, Singled Out.Tags: bella depaulo, happily single, lori gottlieb, marry him!, single mothers, singlism, what was the nation thinking??
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Christina alerted me recently to a debate between our (admittedly) favorite singles expert, Bella DePaulo, and writer Lori Gottlieb, who wrote a rather infuriating article entitled “Marry Him!” that was published in The Nation back in February/March 08. I’m not going to touch the conversation between DePaulo & Gottlieb (see below for links to the full exchange), but I do want to ask our valuable, intelligent, anti-singlist and happily single readers the question that Gottlieb seems to already have answered for us:
You say you’re happy being single…
So, are you lying or just in denial?
BOOK REVIEW: Cheating at Solitaire, by Ally Carter September 17, 2008
Posted by Onely in book review, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, Reviews.Tags: ally carter, cheating at solitaire, single
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Carter, Ally. Cheating at Solitaire. New York: Penguin, 2005
On the back of the book:
Self-help guru Julia James is so good at being single that she’s become famous for it–advising women that they don’t need a man to be happy. Then the unthinkable happens. Just when her newest book, 101 Ways to Cheat at Solitaire, is about to hit stores, a trumped-up piece of gossip linking her to a gorgeous actor hits the papers. Their pictures are splashed all over the tabloids, and now Julia’s credibility is about to hit rock bottom. But she isn’t going down without a fight. Unless, that is, the actor is going down with her.
I picked this book up because I wanted to see whether Julia ends up with the gorgeous actor. That’s what usually happens–the strong single woman is celebrated as long as in the end she ends up with a good man (Must Love Dogs, Hope Floats–oh we all know there are tons of examples out there, even if I can’t think of them right now). I was expecting Cheating at Solitaire would be different, because on the back of the book the author professes herself a proud singleton: (more…)
Pop Music, Scourge of the Onelies (part 715_e): I wuv my woogums September 1, 2008
Posted by Onely in As If!, Food for Thought, music review, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, We like. . ..Tags: Bobby McGee, pop music, single, Stevie Wonder, woogums
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Why are most pop songs about love? Because it’s a state fraught with emotion just begging to be released in song. Fine; I get that. But of all the pop songs about love, why are most of them about man-woman couple love? Because that’s the kind of love our world seems to place above all other kinds of love. Not fine; I don’t get that. (more…)
Guilty Pleasures: It’s not Onely, but you can’t help it! August 18, 2008
Posted by Onely in music review, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, Reviews.Tags: feministing.com, guilty pleasures, lovin, scourge of the Onelies, trick pony
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One of Lisa’s and my favorite blogs, feministing.com, solicits Guilty Pleasures from its readers. According to feministing blogger Miriam, guilty pleasures are “those pop culture things that you love, even though deep down inside you know that they might conflict with your feminist values”.
I got to thinking about this while writing our recent post about Trick Pony’s song “Just what I do when I can’t get no lovin'”. I have it in my Ipod and think it’s a catchy tune and, yes, when I first heard it I laughed. Yet I found the premise disturbing enough to post on it–
Who else has pop culture things that conflict with their Onely values, but which they can’t help liking?
–CC
Scourge of the Onelies, part 56.9-c: “What I do when I can’t get no lovin'” August 18, 2008
Posted by Onely in As If!, music review, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, Reviews.Tags: heteronormative, lovin, masterpiece, scourge of the Onelies, single, trick pony
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Today my Ipod turned up this song by Trick Pony, in which Jesse James, Orville Wright, and Picasso each say they excelled in their field because “it’s just what I do when I can’t get no lovin'”. As if painting masterpieces or inventing the airplane is all well and good, but what those guys really wanted–and, by implication, should have been pursuing–is lovin’ (read: heteronormative relationship). (more…)
Internet Drivel, Scourge of the Onelys! (Part 78e) August 17, 2008
Posted by Onely in As If!, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, Singled Out.Tags: being single, guilt, Heteronormativity, i'm happy and you're not, jealousy, MSN, pop culture, singles table, weddings
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I just came across this article in my morning internet-browse, entitled “10 Tips for Defusing Jealousy once You’re Engaged” (because engaged people have it soooo hard! sorry… ahem, I of course would have no idea how “difficult” it must be to be engaged, because I’ve never been). Read on and pay attention to the embedded assumption that it’s generally single people who are going to be jealous, and it’s all because they are single and wish they weren’t: (more…)
Cable TV, Scourge of the Onelys (installment 374x): What Not to Wear July 23, 2008
Posted by Onely in "Against Love"...?, As If!, Food for Thought, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, Singled Out.Tags: fashion, guilty pleasure, rhetoric, sophistication, tlc, what not to wear
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Since I often work at home, one of my guilty pleasures is to watch reruns of TLC’s show, What Not to Wear (the American version) when I take a break for lunch. Today, inspired by Bella DePaulo’s chapter on the myth that Every Single Person Is “Interested in Just One Thing – Getting Coupled,” I decided to take notes as I watched today’s episode, which focused on a 26-year-old single young woman named Sohni. I was curious about whether the show’s rhetoric would carry a pro-coupling spin or if maybe it would just encourage Sohni to look fabulous, no matter her motivation. After all, Sohni has a career, hopes to go to law school, and likes to party with her friends in Chicago… Isn’t that enough? (more…)
Funny (Freaky?) Friday July 11, 2008
Posted by Onely in As If!, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys.Tags: fate, free will, god, Heteronormativity, luke... you cannot escape your destiny, oedipus, panic, statistics
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One of my favorite routines in the morning is to check out the dating advice provided by MSN (and its affiliates such as Match.com, Chemistry, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan) and to laugh and laugh… Since it’s Friday and I’m back from my long week out of town, I figured I’d pass along the humor. I’m 29 and Onely… Why am I not panicking? This article tells me I *should* be: (more…)
Pop Music, Scourge of the Onelys (Part 1 of 8,593): Measuring time in relationship units July 2, 2008
Posted by Onely in Food for Thought, Pop Culture: Scourge of the Onelys, Reviews.Tags: being single, measuring time, Pop Songs, relationship, single and happy
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For our first installment of “Pop Music: Scourge of the Onelys”, I would like to highlight Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Blink”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I would marry Kenny if he asked me (any day now), but I have to comment on these lyrics, which I heard for the eighty-twelfth time during my commute today:
“Don’t blink
Just like that you’re six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you’re twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don’t blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did”
And I was thinking about how so often we measure the passage of time in units of relationships, marriages, and children. (more…)
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