The overwhelming majority of single women who voted last week did so with the intent of doing the Republicans harm. According to CNN exit polls, a full 68 percent of single women voted for Democrats in the midterms, with only 31 percent voting Republican. That’s a gap of 37 points.
Naturally, Republicans have responded to this news not by trying to figure out how to appeal to this particular demographic but by vilifying single women as miserable, lonely spinsters clinging to their cats.
This guy is the managing editor of the alleged humor site, the Babylon Bee, by the way.
The Daily Caller, meanwhile, attacked single women as “Lonely Wine Karens Ruining Our Country,” asking its readers to “picture an ex-librarian who drinks boxed wine while listening to Joni Mitchell.” Never mind that the average single woman in America, far from being a middle-aged ex-librarian wine Karen, is 29 years old.
The biggest irony of the whole Republican argument, such as it is, is that single women aren’t the lonely, miserable, alcoholic spinsters of right-wing fantasy. On the contrary, studies have shown that childless single women are, on average, happier than married women with children. And men, especially those who haven’t married. So it’s no wonder it’s mostly men who are decrying falling marriage rates.
In a recent talk, London School of Economics behavioral science professor Paul Dolan put it this way:
If you’re a man, you should probably get married; if you’re a woman, don’t bother.
[Married men] earn more money at work, and you live a little longer. She, on the other hand, has to put up with that, and dies sooner than if she never married. The healthiest and happiest population subgroup are women who never married or had children.
And the election results are making single American women even happier.
Also, I don’t know if you know this, but cats are great.
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Re babies eating a lot of groceries: he probably expects Mom to breastfeed the little darlings ’til said little darlings are 20–*not* months–years old.
Which could make high school graduation ceremonies…interesting..
to say the least.
Rusalka
A lot of conservatives – Christian, republican, several similar types- don’t donate out of empathy. It’s much more likely to be either…
1) a religious obligation or similar duty
2) distrust of organisations- especially governments – to handle funds “properly”
3) looking for the smug self-satisfaction of handing over goods or cash – in person , face to face – to a grateful, preferably humble, recipient. (With clean fingernails and combed hair)
As for mens roles in all this, I remember Margaret Mead’s observations. She remarked that all over the world it didn’t really matter what men _did_ , what mattered was that this activity was set aside or apart, respected and honoured by both men and women. Cooking, climbing, basket weaving, gardening, carving, building, even breastfeeding … anything and everything. If a man learned a skill or behaviour, it would attract approval so long as it was admired/ rewarded by his community. (I’d warn anyone unfamiliar with Mead. Like all researchers and academics of her generation, her framework was a bit (a lot) warped by Freudian nonsense. It’s often a bit challenging to unpick the tangle but, just like Freud, there are some valid points. Mostly not worth the trouble of polishing such small , dull gems.)
Why are Republicans going regressive?
My friend who used to live in a developing nation was surprised that when he started reaching his teens, his female peers were already giving birth to older men who didn’t stay, and they dropped out of school.
When he worked with a private auditor who had a contract with the IMF, a contract was to reduce teenage pregnancies.
Reducing teen pregnancies reduce poverty rates. The country had a huge problem with young girls being preyed upon by older men with political connections, and then left to take care of the children by themselves. It also doesn’t help when before funding, girls were likely to die in a hospital.
@Cane Toad
Why would Republicans want to reduce poverty rates? That’s the opposite of punishing people for the crime of being poor.
@ Full Metal Ox
That is an affirmative
Man, what do Republicans have against librarians and cats?
Single women are the smartest of those four demographics, based on two simple facts: 1. Women are smarter than men. 2. Married women take on extra domestic and emotional labour and have less time for thinking. Society will continue to be dysfunctional until single women are in charge. Only they can save us.
They so wish it was true and yet it’s not. Sadly, facts don’t care about your feelings, and the facts show that unmarried, childless women live the longest and are the happiest.
And abortion is one of the things that makes that possible. With the price of everything going up, even married women who already have kids are (were) finding abortion a useful thing to keep the quality of life up for the whole family. Raising better children, think of the chiiiiiildreeen!
Do the youngsters today listen to Joni Mitchell? Have they rediscovered her?
As to why regressives don’t like cats: cats don’t do pecking orders. You can’t beat them into obeying you, like the GQP likes to do to children. They’ll just start pissing on your bed and maybe run away to the widow down the street who will buy them the finest noms and cuddle them and call them a cutie-wootie-patootie. And they will use the box at her house and behave themselves.
@ FM Ox : Hey, at least the Romans only required 3 kids, and didn’t take it back if one or more of them died for any reason! And it wasn’t money, but freedom from a lot of restrictive laws for both parents, which could be more valuable eventually, particularly for rich/er women.
@Cygnia: I’m married, no kids, have always had cats and live in California! I WIN! (Okay, the Mr. and I have chronic illnesses, but this is still one of the best places in the US to have those)
At this point I think it’s safe to say it’s not just single women who hate the GOP. Lincoln himself would probably vote Democrat after five minutes with Trump or McConnell.
Okay, I know this isn’t ‘actually the point, BUT – Why do conservatives think women don’t like dogs? I mean, cats are cool, but pretty much all the women I know -single, married, divorced, whatever – have dogs. And not just little teacup dogs with hairdos and bows, but big ole hairy DAWGS. I’m married now, but my motto when young was, “men can come and go, my dog and I are FOREVER.” (And if I had it on my iPad, I’d post my favorite picture of myself – me and two of my pit mixes, taken by my husband in the front seat of the car while we were stopped at a light. It’s SO unflattering, but the dogs and I are looking down at the camera with a combination of disgruntlement and wariness, and our heads are on the same level and about the same size. Hysterical!)
@ another laura
Get a right-hand drive car and one of those pretend steering wheels they make for kids, and you’ll never have to pay a speeding ticket again.
Another Laura: I’ve got Pyr and Anatolian mixes. Their heads are higher than mine!
I will never understand what those shits have against cats. Also, I’m not married and don’t have kids, and I’m the happiest I have been now than I was ever since I was a child. Neither me nor my boyfriend needs marriage or kids, either. We are perfectly content with just the two of us, all while not even living together. And even when we are together, he takes as much care of me as I do of him, cooks and cleans without complaint, and at times even shoo’s me out the kitchen when he wants to do me something good and I try to help regardless. I fail to see how marriage would add anything to that, and kids would most likely just put strains on us in ways we cannot foresee.
@Another Laura
I don’t know, I’m really not particularly fond of dogs. Their behaivor always throws me off. I don’t hate them, but I’m neutral to them and they to me.
The people complaining about single women seem to be desperately unhappy.