...and could afford to spend on more crap they can't afford and really can't afford to keep? I don't even have to crunch the numbers to know my check will be used to pay down my estimated tax _and_ pay to get my taxes done. So much for that shopping spree...:P

>Someone else, who I apologize but I can't remember who you are,<

It was Flying Squirrel.

>said that many women she knew or has met don't seem to have any *interests* of their own, and I am really glad you said that because I've often wondered why most of my closest friends have been men. The women I meet as an adult rarely talk about anything besides each other and boys; they don't talk about sports they play, or hikes they go on, or races they're running in, or art they make, or books they've read, or ANYTHING.<

Christ, how does one grow up like that? How can anyone be a reasonably sentient human being and not develop some kind of interests in things outside of dating and men? There are so many things to do or play or think about--hell, even if all one does is watch TV, that's at least something to discuss. I knew a girl in college who was compulsive about getting men--and constantly trying to prove to other women that she was so much sexier and desirable than they were. However, even she was into music (she's currently has a jazz radio show down in Florida somewhere) and could talk songs and musical genres like an expert.

>I don't want lots of men.

Why can't men accept that and just relate to me as a person?<

1) Why would men who would be that dismissive/cruel/stupid be worth your time? They can't relate to you as a person because to them, you aren't one.

2) Why should you care what they think of you or call you? They are the ones with the problems--and from their lousy attitudes toward mild rejection, it's a sure bet women-hating and contempt for women are two of 'em.

2) Isn't it better to find out early in the game that they are creeps instead of finding out once you've made an emotional investment?

1) Gottlieb shot her credibility right out the box by saying that every woman she knows, no matter how successful, feels panic if they aren't married by 30. As we all know, every woman she knows is every woman out there, right?

2) God spare us from self-hating folks. Do the women who write articles like this really think they are trying to help other single women? Their tone is always so hostile, panic-button, and doom-laden that it's clear they write this stuff solely to take out their fears on other women.

3) If Gottlieb wants to settle so damm much, let her do it. The rest of us will get to snicker when she writes an article a few years later complaining that her husband dumped her because she made the mistake of showing him she didn't really love him.

4) I'd give a million to see SINGLED OUT's author Bella DePaulo rebut this nitwit.

http://www.amazon.com/Singled-Out-Singles-Stereotyped-Stigmatized/dp/0312340826/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202545460&sr=8-2

Ah, well--the upside of crap like this is that Gottlieb and her fellow women-that-hate-women will give DePaulo plenty of material for her next two books...;)

>Her article reminded me of a recent piece by Kay Hymowitz. Her thesis was that guys in their 20's and 30's like to play video games and read maxim and are therefore not proper adults, ie. married people.<

All the "get married or be non-human" propaganda conservative and matromonia-types have been dishing out lo these many years have the same ongoing themes. I hate to sound like I'm virally-hyping SINGLED OUT, but it's an excellent list of the scare tactics and stereotypes these folks traffic in. It sounds like Hymowitz pulled her piece straight from SO's Chapter Eight ("Attention Single Men: You Are Horny, Slovenly, and Irresponsible and You Are the Scary Criminals. Or You Are Sexy, Fastidious, Frivolous, and Gay.") :)

>Somebody forgot to tell them it's not 1953 anymore I guess.<

They know it's not the '50s but they don't care. Because that was an era of perfect families and a perfect society, that is what they feel we should revive, like it or not.

>I think I'd appreciate Gottlieb's piece more if she actually had done what she preaches and settled for someone and wrote about it then, from inside the trenches. But, no, she hasn't and yet she's advising other women to settle now before its "too late". How exactly is that advice worth taking?<

She doesn't want to help. She wants to take out her anxiety and self-hatred on other women, period. Her, Caitlin Flanagan, Kathleen Parker, Maureen Dowd--the entire conservative/faux liberal lot of them have the same problem and use the rest of us as scapegoats. A very passive-aggressive Mean Girl manuever, pretending you are trying to help while subtly sabotaging...:)

>Aside from the financial aspects, and of course the stereotyping and discrimination talked about in the Singled Out book that someone earlier had mentioned (thank you, btw, its on my Amazon wish list now and looks quite good!),

You're welcome. :)

>Thats certainly something I'll never settle for nor should anyone else, male or female. And its not like your kids don't pick up on that either.<

Well, said kids should just suck it up or live in denial for the rest of their lives. And settling is what "mature" people do to keep a perfect society going, right? Who cares if anyone's happy--it's all about keeping the peace. ;)

>Oh, and why are these articles always about women? Can we get some press on single men and how they should be settling as well?<

Nah--men don't settle. They get "tamed" or "are taught to grow up" but they never, ever settle. According to the above morons, anyway...;)