Single Women AND the Media

Sometimes I I get these posts in my mind but don’t put them to print.  Ever since reading about single women voting for Barack Obama by a 70% to 29% majority, I have been pre-occupied with the issue of why women would choose the Democrats over Republicans and why the Republican Party may have stereotypes about single women.  It is the reason I was moved to write a post about the Republican Party needing to drop stereotypes about single women.  I was thinking, through channel surfing, the media portrays single women in a bad light.  It seems that the same conservatives who get upset about media bias against Republicans and bad stereotypes about Christians are also buying into the medias stereotypes of women.  There seems to be three types of single women on TV.  Either they are feminist lesbian types like Rosie O’Donell and Ellen Degeneres.  Or they are portrayed like the chicks on “Sex in the City.”  I have also noticed that when there are single women on sitcoms, they are loser, desperate, pitiful man chasing sisters/sister-in-laws of the married couple who are the main characters.

These type of women give a message to the married people that we hate men, don’t want to date them, believe in global warming, want to “save the critters,” support abortion, as with Rosie and Ellen.  Although I will give Ellen some credit.  I may not agree with her, but at least she doesn’t get all militant like Rosie.  The stereotype that is if we are straight, we have something personal to gain from pro-abortion laws.  I will concede to the fact that most pro-abortion supporters are single women.  But that doesn’t mean that the majority of single women are pro-abortion.  There is a huge difference there.

Shows like “Sex in the City” give the message that single women are selfish and self serving, wearing Mano Blanko shoes and have expendable income.  If we get hungry, splurge and order Chinese.  We date many different guys.  The “flavors of the week” walk through like a revolving doors.

I find it rather interesting that there are people who complain about the way men are portrayed in sitcoms as dumb dolts who need their wives to boss them around, treat them like children and emasculate them.  Yet, there is no one out there to complain about the unmarried sister of the wife or emasculated man.  She is the one that is portrayed kinda skanky.  She sleeps with guys on the first or second date.  She waits by the phone for a man to call.  Her life is in shambles.  She needs her sister to tell her how to live her life.  Or her life would be more in shambles.

The only time I can really recall where single women are portrayed in a positive light are some of the regular and guest characters who are single on “Little House on the Prairie” or Miss Kitty on “Gunsmoke.”

Miss Beadle is the first single woman character on the show that had a prominent role on Little House.  She was the first teacher.  She was unmarried when the show began.  She was very admirable.  She cared about the students and did her job well.  When there was a conflict in town, she stood up for what was right.  She ended up getting married later in life and had her first baby when she was probably in her mid to late thirties.

After Miss Beadle (I can’t remember her married name) had a baby, Miss Wilder took over as teacher.  Actually, in between that time it was Mrs. Garvey who took over as teacher until the Walnut Grove School Board could find a replacement.  But back to Miss Wilder.  She came into town with her brother Almanzo, who would later be Laura Ingall’s husband.  Miss Wilder and Almanzo ran a farm outside of town.  I admit Miss Wilder could seem somewhat desperate for a man at times.  But she didn’t get all cutesy, wutesy, flirtsy, wirtsy and skanky when she was around men.  She was all business.  She didn’t take no guff from the students, or Mrs. Oleson.

Later on, another main single female character was Hester-Sue Terhune.  She was the other teacher at the blind school who had joined Adam and Mary (Ingalls) Kendall, when they moved the school to Mr. Hanson’s big house.  She came from a segregated blind school for black kids in St. Louis, MO.   She had known hardships, but was able to move forward in life.  She was born on a plantation to slaves.  She was divorced from a man who left her for another woman.   She was always willing to give her all to anyone who needed help.  She was tough, but kind and caring.

Then of course there was the occasional widow.  These women would usually have a farm and children to take care of.  They weren’t worried about the latest clothes or finding some man, any man to be an instant step-daddy.  They had to worry about raising their kids to be productive citizens and keep the farm going.

I can’t really recall seeing any guest characters who had never been married.  Oh except for there was a couple episodes in which Charles Ingalls brought an old hobo to live with and work for him.  The hobo fell for an “old maid.”  OK, she was a bit stereotyped.  She had her little kitty and was kinda grumpy to the old hobo.

I also remember one episode when Mrs. Cooper’s father came to Walnut Grove.  He took over the town paper for a few episodes.  He was slandering people.  One of the Cooper kids was helping a woman who moved to town.  Nobody knew her history.  It came out that she had been an alcoholic and I think she had also been a saloon girl.  She moved to Walnut Grove to sober up and live a new life.  But Mrs. Cooper’s father had “outed” her.  She was upset and hit the bottle.  This could kinda be a lesson to people who stereotype single women nowadays.

Then of course there was Miss Kitty on “Gunsmoke.”  Towards the end of the show she had to have at least been in her 40’s.  She was awesome.  She was even a capitalist entrepreneur of a saloon.  She didn’t have time to worry about gossip.  She judged people on their merits, not economy, race, marital status or anything else.  She was motherly and supportive towards the girls that worked at her saloon.  She was full of ideas and wisdom.  Plus, the cool thing is that even in her forties all the guys thought she was hot.  It’s nice to see an a older woman being portrayed as hot in the media, instead of being put out to pasture once a woman hits 30.

The purpose of this post is two fold.  One, I think that married people need to realize that media stereotypes of single women is off base.  Remember you were once single.  I also want to say that if married women are afraid that unmarried women will “steal” their husbands, they have other issues to deal with.  If married men are afraid that “can’t control themselves” around unmarried women, they have other issues to deal with.  “Family values” should not be confined to sweater set wearing wives, “perfect” husbands, smiling little kids, living in a ranch house with a white picket fence, driving an SUV with a doggy in the yard.  Family values can have more broader meanings, so long it is in moral confines.  Is it immoral for an unmarried woman to call her mom and talk about life issues?  Is it immoral for her to call her grandmother and ask how she and other family members are?  Is it immoral for her to reminisce about holiday dinners at her grandparent’s?

Second, I want to see single women take more interest in politics.  If they would really look at the issues they would realize that the Republican Party is the party that can make their lives better.  I want those who are unmarried to speak out.  Don’t just let Democrats tell you they will help you without giving details about their true plans.  If you really looked at their ideas you would realize that they do not have your best interests in mind.