Julia Concannon

Julia Concannon

HI303

Professor Blower

The Plight of the Single Woman: Exploring the Relationship between Hollywood and Conceptualizations of "Singlehood" in the Western World

Since its popularization following the Second World War, American television has served as a barometer for the dominant socio-cultural views of a given time, both reflecting and nurturing cultural trends and values. The contours of shifting romantic and intimate dynamics in the United States have been carefully mapped onto popular narratives in television and film over the past century, spanning from the rather traditional takes on the subject with sitcoms like the Brady Bunch, to radically progressive depictions of love and sex in 2014 Netflix hit Orange is the New Black. Hollywood's cultural productions have offered a particularly incisive picture of the shifting social status of single women in America, serving as a tool for her simultaneous advancement and subjugation.(1) I will explore the ways in which television and film in the western world nurtured and responded to cultural understandings of both heterosexual and queer women from the 70s through the early aughts in ways that were both beneficial and harmful, paying particular attention to distinctions in ways of conceptualizing singleness across lines of sexual identity. 

The concept of “singlehood” as an essential period of time in a young person’s development is relatively new in the western world. In colonial times, dominant religious values, public opinion, and social structures rendered any substantial window of singlehood untenable for most people.(2) In fact, punishing attitudes towards unmarried individuals were codified into law in the early 18th century with the passage of a bachelor tax which required single men to pay double taxes for partaking in the “selfish luxury of solitary living”.(3) Legislation which served to dissuade single women from remaining single was even harsher: if a woman came into land and didn’t marry within 7 years, she was forced to “dispose of that land, or forfeit it to the next of kin.” In their article “Singlehood and the American Experience: Prospects for a Changing Status”, Mary Schwartz and Paula Wolfe argue that while modern attitudes toward unmarried women are more tolerant than they had been in the past, suspicion of the single woman’s moral character remains pervasive.(4) According to an empirical study conducted by Deborah Carr on the "Social and Emotional Well-Being of Single Women in Contemporary America", single women are more likely to report that they are discriminated against than their married counterparts.(5)

Despite Carr's findings, cultural shifts that have taken place over the past several decades have contributed to increasingly tolerant attitudes towards single women. The expanding financial freedoms for women under post-industrial capitalism mounted a shift in their romantic and intimate lives, allowing for increased prioritization of individual needs and desires to self-actualize independently of a partner. (6) The emergence of this defined stage of life between childhood and marriage meant that women could exist more or less untethered to the people and structures that had previously controlled them, resulting in a number of cultural and demographic re-configurations.

Many women were eager to capitalize on this window of time as a moment for self-exploration and began to take part in relatively contemporary cultural rituals like dating and hooking up. This delay in “settling down” allowed women to cultivate higher-powered careers and hobbies unrelated to homemaking and child-rearing. (7) Furthermore, it bolstered the prioritization of constructing intimate friend-circles and other support networks rather than romantic partnerships. With that being said, this period of “singlehood” was only fashionable up to a certain age. Women who were not married by their late 20s were often relegated to the pejorative category of the “old maid”, and faced a number of legislative and societal pressures to enter heterosexual marriages as a means of ensuring that they would be taken care of financially and emotionally. (8) In fact, until 1972 birth control was only given to married women as a means of dissuading single women from having sex before marriage. (9) It wouldn’t be until the 70s and 80s with the emergence of the 2nd wave feminist movement that single women were granted increasing visibility both in daily life and on-screen. In 1970, characters Rhoda Morgenstern and Mary in the Mary Tyler Moore Show redefined women's roles in television, becoming some of the first characters on a popular series to portray the experience of being a single woman in a way that did not inflict further harm on the image of the unmarried woman in America. (10) Men are de-centered in Mary's life, her identity is instead built around her career ambitions in television, along with her relationships to her close friends. With that being said, her sexual desires are regularly acknowledged throughout the show. In fact, in a 1972 episode it is revealed to the audience that Mary is on the pill despite the fact that she is unmarried (11). Mary Tyler-Moore's authentic depiction of life as a single woman in America paved the way for numerous other single pop-culture icons like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City and Bridget Jones.

Debates over the single woman’s morality and social value over the past several decades have been mediated through television and film in ways that are empowering in some instances, and deeply harmful in others. Increasingly progressive attitudes towards single women in popular culture have been underpinned by the coalescence of increased female authorship and monumental advances in the fight for gender equality. (12) Since the early 70s, prolific female writers like Treva Silverman, Tina Fey, Jenny Kohan, Micaela Coel, Ilene chaiken and Phoebe Waller Bridge have spearheaded initiatives in TV and Film to bring authentic, female-driven narratives into a space which had previously mis-represented the inner drives and desires of its subjects. The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Sex and the City, The Diary of Bridget Jones, and The L Word offer a particularly incisive picture of the shifting social status of the single woman in the late 90s and early 2000s. 

Scholar Anthea Taylor maps the evolution of popular conceptions and depictions of the single woman from “spinster” to “singleton” in her book “Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism”. (13) Taylor posits that seemingly “progressive” depictions of the single woman are often underpinned by a number of implicit messages intended to hint at the fact that the woman is not “entirely reconciled to her singleness” (14). That is to say, singleness was positioned as a central anxiety that drove women to extreme lengths in order to appear desirable in the eyes of a man. 

The creation of Candace Busnell’s Sex and the City in 1998 signaled a seismic shift in broad cultural understandings of singlehood and dating in the western world. Though the program fails to evade the proliferation of harmful stereotypes in their entirety, the concept that women beyond their mid 20s could lead fulfilling lives without a primary romantic partner was a pioneering concept in television (15). Scholar Anthea Taylor insightfully comments on the importance of the show, writing that “single women, once treated as virtual outcasts, have moved to the center of our social and cultural life’, with Bridget Jones and the women from Sex and the City as evidence of this ‘major societal shift’”. (16) Furthermore, the central characters in these shows are driven by sexual pleasure in a way that defies tropes of female asexuality, or sex as a duty rather than desire . With that being said, there are a number of themes and narrative trends which further harmed women in these contexts.

Sex and the City explores the insidious ways in which stigma against single women has embedded itself in societal attitudes and structures. For instance, in ‘Four Women and a Funeral’, Miranda takes out a mortgage on her first apartment and is required to indicate her relationship status on the paperwork. (17) The rather invasive process that Miranda is subjected to captures the still pervasive influence of institutionalized discrimination against high powered, unmarried women. When Miranda returns to the apartment for an inspection, her neighbor comes by to tell her that the previous tenant of the owner  ‘a single woman, died in that apartment, wasn’t found for a week and rumor has it, the cat ate half her face’. (18) The elderly woman’s remarks harken back to a number of fears that have been pervasive for single women. A week later, Miranda has a panic attack after choking on Chinese take-away, fearful that she will succumb to the same fate as the former tenant. 

 Although Sex and the City’s four female protagonists resist pressures to succumb to marriage or children before they are ready, their lives are undeniably tethered to the pursuit of romantic attachment and love, and the fear of failing to find true love plagues the minds of the women throughout the show's 5 seasons (19). In the series finale, all four characters are in long term, committed relationships. This ending sends the message that a woman’s life is ultimately incomplete unless she is able to trade in the kind of adolescent fun that singlehood affords her for the kind of “happiness” and “security” that a man can provide. This inferred message is confirmed by a 1996 interview with the creator of the New York Times column and show, Candace Bushnell, in which she states that she believes that “most people should be in relationships” (20). While Bushnell’s work was profoundly subversive and undeniable pioneering, she still possesses a number of opinions that she projects onto the women she writes about in the series.

Since its 1998 premiere, The Diary of Bridget Jones has served as one of the most visible and incisive depictions of female singlehood to date (21). Fielding’s 1996 publication captures the complexities of existing as a single woman in the modern day, as we see Jones oscillate between a feminist emblem and a woman desperate to be “unsingle”. Though Jones often succumbs to the pressures set forth by the patriarchy in an attempt to appear desirable to the male gaze, she acknowledges the ways in which they harm women. For instance, in her diary she begins by recording her weight as a means of motivating her intended aesthetic transformation. Later, she comments on the impact of these pressures, “And because there’s more than one bloody way to live: one in four households are single, most of the royal family are single, the nation’s young men have been proved by surveys to be completely unmarriageable , and as a result there’s a whole generation of single girls like me with their own incomes and homes who have lots of fun and don’t need to wash anyone else’s socks.” (22) Scholar Anthea Taylor notes that while Jones does push back against a number of expectations single women, she seems to internalize the fears that others project onto her. She says "Even the most outrageous minxes lose their nerve, wrestling with the first twinges of existential angst: fears of dying alone and being found three weeks later half eaten by an Alsatian." (23)

While primetime television during the late 90s and early aughts began to nurture and respond to the cultural phenomenon of the sexually liberated heterosexual single woman, few cultural productions depicted the experiences of single women who sought to pursue other women. The exclusion of lesbians from narratives of singlehood during this period largely reflected limited lesbian authorship and fears that the centering of queer women would drive away viewers.

Ilene Chaiken’s 2004 Showtime Series, The L Word, serves as a rich site of comparison against both Sex and the City and Bridget Jones’ Diary as it depicts romance, sex and singlehood, but unlike its predecessors, it focuses entirely on the experiences of queer women (24). The shows coalesce and diverge in a number of interesting ways. Depictions of singlehood in primarily heterosexual shows are underscored by an acute sense of anxiety, and a pervasive urgency to couple-up. Furthermore, in both Sex and the City and Bridget Jones’s Diary, despite seemingly feminist messaging promoted by the protagonist's journey for self-actualization independent of a male partner, both programs end with its main characters coupled up. Conversely, shows like The L Word seem to situate singlehood as a natural part of life, rather than an acute source of anxiety or an issue that needs to be resolved. While some of the program’s characters remain in relationships throughout the series, a number of its protagonists end up single. Additionally, female platonic intimacy is depicted as being equally as important to the wellbeing of its characters as the romantic bonds that they form. In her piece on “Heterosexism and the Study of Women’s Romantic”, scholar Suzanna Rose speaks to this phenomenon of the heightened degree of intimacy in lesbian friendships, writing that “lesbians appear to be less likely than heterosexual women to view friendships as substantially different from romantic relationships. The companionate basis of both types of relationships is highly valued by lesbians, andlesbian authors have contended that the distinction that is made between “love relationships” and “friendship” is artificial, in that friendships are love relationships.”(25).

Prior to the creation of The L Word, primetime depictions of single lesbians seemed to evade any mention of queer sexual desire in order to appeal to the demands of a heterosexual audience. For instance, when Ellen came out in her popular series in 1997, her identity was framed in a comedic light, which served to minimize the monumental and highly meaningful declaration that it was. Scholar Ann Ciasullo incisively describes the way Ellen’s identity was addressed as “a lark, a playful, ultimately meaningless venture along the lines of a zany escapade or perhaps an idiosyncrasy- a quirk that makes Ellen interesting and fun”(26).  

The L Word offered an intimate and nuanced portrait of navigating friendship and the dating world as a queer woman, abandoning popular depictions of lesbians as asexual side-characters. Each of the show’s 7 main character’s moves in out of singlehood and relationships somewhat regularly, but their careers and friendships remain paramount to their identities throughout the show’s 6 seasons. For instance, one of the show's older characters, Kit, is more often pictured single than she in a relationship, a fact that is never discussed on the show and seems not to elicit any noticeable feelings of anxiety neither from her nor her friends. Shane, an aspiring hairstylist and active member in Los Angeles’s clubbing scene rarely remains in a relationship for more than several weeks. Though Shane’s rejection of monogamy does serve as a source of conflict throughout the show, she remains unwavering in her stance on commitment, opting instead for close intimacy in friendships.(27)

Hollywood cultural productions have offered a particularly incisive picture of the shifting social status of the single woman in America, simultaneously serving as a tool for the advancement and degredation of unmarried women in the western world. Depictions of "well-adjusted" single women in popular culture began in the 1970s with Mary Tyler Moore's groundbreaking narrative on female independence and friendship. Moore's sitcom challenged notions of unmarried women as maladapted, and paved the way for groundbreaking television in the 90s and early 2000s. Over two decades later, author Candace Bushnell created the hit show Sex and the City which further subverted cultural norms and expectations of unmarried women, opening up conversations about issues like female pleasure and what life might look like outside of traditional insitutions like marriage and children. Finally, in 2004 the release of the L Word expanded conversations around singlehood and dating to queer women in the western world. The show highlighted the ways in which single queer women build intimate platonic friendships as a means of fostering community and a sense of familial support. These cultural productions have served to both nurture and measure cultural trends and views when it comes to single women. 

Endnotes:

1: Taylor, Anthea, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan 2011: 57.

2: Mary Ann Schwartz and Paula Wolf, “Singlehood and the American Experience: Prospects for a Changing Status,” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations (1976): 20.

3: Schwartz and Wolf, “Singlehood and the American Experience", 22.

4:  Schwartz and Wolf, “Singlehood and the American Experience", 17-24.

5:Deborah Carr, "Social and Emotional Well-Being of Single Women in Contemporary America", Rutgers University Press, (2007), https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813544014-004, 58-81.

6: Anthea Taylor, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan (2011): 100.

7: Taylor, Anthea, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan (2011): 57.

8: Betsy Israel, Bachelor Girl: The Secret History of  Single Women in the 20th Century, William Morrow, (2002), 30.

9: Schwartz and Wolf, “Singlehood and the American Experience", 17-24.

10: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, CBS, 1970.

11: Mary Tyler Moore Show, "You've Got a Friend", CBS, 1972.

12: Anthea Taylor, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan (2011): 96.

13: Anthea Taylor, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan (2011): 30.

14: Anthea Taylor, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan (2011): 10.

15: HBO presents ; created by Darren Star ; Darren Star Productions, Sex and the City, [United States] :HBO Video, 1998.

16: Anthea Taylor, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan (2011): 38.

17: Sex and the City, Season 2, Episode 5,  "Four Weddings and a Funeral",  Aired July 4, 1999, [United States] :HBO Video, 1998.

18: Sex and the City, Season 2, Episode 5,  "Four Weddings and a Funeral",  Aired July 4, 1999, [United States] :HBO Video, 1998.

19: HBO presents ; created by Darren Star ; Darren Star Productions, Sex and the City, [United States] :HBO Video, 1998.

20: Candace Bushnell, interviewed by Charlie Rose, Charlie Rose, 1996.

21: Helen Fielding,1958-. Bridget Jones's Diary :a Novel. New York :Penguin Books, 1999.

22: Helen Fielding et al., Bridget Jones's Diary. Burbank, CA. : Burbank, CA., Miramax Films, 2004.

23: Anthea Taylor, Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism,  Palgrave Macmillan (2011): 85.

24: Showtime. The L Word. [California] :Paramount Home Entertainment, 2004.

25: Suzana Rose," Heterosexism and the study of women's romantic and friend relationships", Journal of Social Issues, 56(2), 315–328.

26: Ann Ciasullo, “Making Her (In)Visible: Cultural Representations of Lesbianism and the Lesbian Body in the 1990s.” Feminist Studies 27, no. 3 (2001): 577–608. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178806.

27:Showtime. The L Word. [California] :Paramount Home Entertainment, 2004.

Essay Proposal; new topic: 

Tracing the evolution of dominant narratives of the single female in Television from 1990 to 2010?

I’m interested in looking at the ways in which dominant anxieties and attitudes about the single female have been mapped onto narratives in television from 1995 up until 2012. Shifting attitudes towards the single woman in popular culture are underpinned by the coalescence of increasing female authorship and leadership in production and film, as well as a general liberalizing in socio-cultural views of the unwed woman. I am interested in investigating how popular narratives in media have functioned to both bolster and hinder the cause of the single woman through a feminist lens. Further, what kinds of women have been granted visibility by prime-time television and what kinds of woman have been left out? I intend to look specifically at the historic exclusion of the lesbian single woman from leading roles in television. Modern depictions of single females specifically celebrate heterosexual romance and have done little to highlight and celebrate the romantic lives of queer women. Scholar A Taylor () maps the evolution of popular conceptions of the single woman from “spinster” to “singleton” in her book “Single Women in Popular Culture : The Limits of Postfeminism”. Taylor posits that seemingly “progressive” depictions of the single woman are often underpinned by a number of implicit messages intended to hint at the fact that the woman is not entirely “reconciled to her singleness” (Taylor, 10). That is to say, singleness is rarely depicted as something peripheral to the woman’s life, of central concern. I have selected a number of series which capture a broad range of experiences and attitudes towards the single woman, spanning from the late 90’s, up until the early 2010s. I will begin my analysis with a look at how Sex and the City both upholds and dismantles notions of singleness, and how it has served as a point of empowerment and disempowerment for many women. I will then investigate depictions of singleness in the pioneering show about romantic lives of queer women, the L Word. The L word serves as a rich site of comparison against popular drama series at the time which were largely focused on the romantic lives of heterosexuals and were produced almost exclusively by men and heterosexual women. The shows coalesce and diverge in a number of interesting ways: 

I am interested in exploring the origins of the American Jewish summer camp and how it has served as an indispensable tool for community and identity building in the decades following the second World War. To what degree were these camp spaces imbued with a distinct sense of Jewish culture, and in what ways did they seem to reflect an image of traditional American Culture. I will look at how this hybridized cultural phenomenon has shaped the coming of age experiences of so many Jews across America. For many Jewish children, camp served, and continues to serve as one of few spaces in which there is a truly intensified identification with the group. What kinds of impacts does being apart of such a uniquely bonded community have on the development of a young person's identity?  This question is particularly interesting to consider in the context of the deeply painful and tragic history which proceeded the establishment of such spaces, and characterized the family dynamics of many Jewish children. I will primarily focus on reform camp spaces, which were constructed within a framework of Jewish culture rather than specific religious practice. Many of my relatives grew up spending their summers at Jewish overnight camps, each coming away with varied experiences and sentiments, so I hope to draw from their testimonies via interview to glean a deeper understanding of the camp experience. The first piece that I will investigate is the origin of the camp. How did these spaces come to fruition against a backdrop of such deep anti-semitic sentiment and ostracization? Furthermore, how did non-Jewish population react to the establishment of these spaces? Additionally, what kinds of children were able to access these spaces, and how did the specific demographics of the campers influence the overall landscape? Then, I will look at the broader question of how an environment essentially free from any parental figure allows for a completely unique experience, characterized by a deep sense of independence and freedom. In what ways does the camp experience harken back to a time in which children ran free.