From the Second-wave to Postfeminism: Single Women in the Mediasphere

Taylor, Anthea

doi:10.1057/9780230358607_3

Cited by 7 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Obviously, these developments occur in a wider social context. Indeed, over the last ten years various scholars have composed an inspiring collection of critical works about single women (Budgeon, 2008; Byrne and Carr, 2005; DePaulo, 2006 Klinenberg, 2012; Lahad, 2012, 2013, 2014; Lahad and Hazan, 2014; Macvarish, 2006; Reynolds, 2008; Simpson, 2006; Taylor, 2012; Trimberger, 2006). A key research direction underlying these works is the intent to scrutinize and debunk the widespread attitudes and stereotypes attached to single women.…”

Section: Singlehood As Non-waitingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stop waiting! Hegemonic and alternative scripts of single women’s subjectivity

Lahad

2016

Time & Society

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The present article argues that despite growing rates of single living worldwide, alternative representations of the single women who do not necessarily spend their life ‘waiting for the one’ are regularly absent from public view. By exploring the injunction as well as the option of non-waiting, this paper contributes to time studies by stressing how understandings of waiting inform hegemonic and alternative forms of temporal subjectivity and sociality. In the first part of this paper, I explore the ways in which the injunction to stop waiting is articulated in heteronormative imagery. This call is regularly expressed with temporal urgency, and from this vantage point waiting comes to represent passivity and immobility. Accordingly, women are expected to ‘move on’ and be active in their own self-governance, which adapts to conventional norms of femininity. In the second part of this article, I demonstrate how the option of non-waiting dismantles and reworks heteronormative life scripts, and offers new subject positions for single women. These reflections propose alternative timetables that allow single women to reclaim their temporal agency and re-define their own temporal rhythms and life trajectories.

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Section: Singlehood As Non-waitingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stop waiting! Hegemonic and alternative scripts of single women’s subjectivity

Lahad

2016

Time & Society

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“…Accordingly, long-term singlehood is to a large extent discouraged, and even stigmatised (e.g. DePaulo, 2006; Taylor, 2011). One significant contribution to the scholarship on singlehood is that of DePaulo and Morris (2006), who co-coined the term singlism to illustrate the ways in which single persons are discriminated against and ignored at both the institutional and interpersonal levels.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Singlehood As a Site Of Unilateral Gi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As presented so bluntly in the episode of SaTC discussed above, the life paths of singles tend to be overlooked in significant ways, compared to those of their married counterparts (see, for example, DePaulo, 2006; Lahad, 2014; Simpson, 2006; Taylor, 2011). While weddings, as an ‘ever evolving social ritual’ (Carter and Smith, 2020: 57) retain rich symbolism, singles generally lack rites of passage for recognising and celebrating auspicious occasions in their adulthood trajectory (Lahad and Kravel-Tovi, 2020).…”

Section: Introduction: and What If I Don’t?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article introduces the scholarly prism of exchange and gift-giving (influenced by Bourdieu, 1998; Mauss, 2000 [1954]), to the literature on singlehood (e.g. DePaulo, 2006; Lahad, 2017; Taylor, 2011) for the first time. This prism provides a compelling analytic toolbox for understanding the subordinate and inferior position of singles in social life.…”

Section: Introduction: and What If I Don’t?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While we aim to contribute to singlehood studies (see, for example, Chow, 2019; DePaulo, 2006; Lahad, 2017; Taylor, 2011) through the perspective of gifting and exchange, we also offer a reversed direction with regard to our theoretical contribution. A great deal of the literature on gifting teaches us about the dynamics of extant reciprocities, or of the intentionally unilateral modes of giving.…”

Section: Introduction: and What If I Don’t?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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It Is My Turn Now: How and Why ‘Single’ Women Complain about Non-Reciprocal Gift-Giving

Kravel-Tovi

Lahad

2021

Sociology

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This article employs the prism of gift-exchange to analyse the marginalised status of singles within social relations. We trace an emerging critique voiced by single women, who challenge the unilateral etiquette of gifting marital and family-making celebrations. While dominant social norms normalise gift-giving at weddings and subsequent family-related occasions, there are no commensurable opportunities for singles to receive back their accumulative investments in the life events of others. Drawing on various online sources, we explore the discursive articulations through which single women highlight the unfairness that underpins their position as constant givers. We show how single women manage the social risks that such public complaints entail, and how they claim to be worthy receivers themselves. This article offers singlehood as a valuable case study for engaging with broader questions concerning reciprocity – specifically, what happens when reciprocal gifting is not an established norm within ostensibly reciprocal social relations.

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“Stroppy Bitches Who Just Need to Learn How to Settle”? Young Single Women and Norms of Femininity and Heterosexuality

Pickens

Braun

2018

Sex Roles

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The (older) single woman has evoked numerous negative sociocultural stereotypes in recent (western) history, with 'being single' a fraught position for (heterosexual) women. Have shifts towards gendered equality changed this? We interviewed to 21 young heterosexual women in Aotearoa (New Zealand) about their experiences of being single. We focused on young adulthood (25-35), a time when having children might be a particularly salient concern. Women's experiences of being single were inextricable from their wider experiences of heterosexuality and pressures to enact a 'desirable' femininity. A thematic analysis identified four patterned sets of pressures, which we conceptualised as 'rules' that govern hetero-relating: 1) pressures and expectations surrounding beauty standards; 2) (allowing for) aspects of male control and 'superiority'; 3) acceptable/unacceptable gendered standards of sexuality; and 4) eventual and mandatory (heterosexual) coupling (by a 'certain' age). Participants remained largely subject to traditional ideas around heterosexual gender roles, with identifiable punishments for 'unfeminine' behaviour. Many women did articulate resistance and critique, even as most also expressed complicity. In this context, singledom was constructed as a 'defective' state -even if desired, suggesting it remains a complex and precarious position to occupy.

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From the Second-wave to Postfeminism: Single Women in the Mediasphere

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Stop waiting! Hegemonic and alternative scripts of single women’s subjectivity

Stop waiting! Hegemonic and alternative scripts of single women’s subjectivity

It Is My Turn Now: How and Why ‘Single’ Women Complain about Non-Reciprocal Gift-Giving

“Stroppy Bitches Who Just Need to Learn How to Settle”? Young Single Women and Norms of Femininity and Heterosexuality

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