These Days

“IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” --Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

With apologies to Jane Austen, it is also a truth rarely acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a good fortune must live all her life in want of a husband.

Because single men find women of good fortune intimidating.

“I graduated in 2006.”
“I own my own house.”
“I’m the human resources director.”

Single women learn quickly that such comments can be a death sentence to a blossoming romance.

We like to fool ourselves into thinking the 21st century has made us more enlightened. Women can ask men out and feminism rules and all that rhetoric. HA! Lies. The truth of the matter is we are still very much living with Victorian ideas of what women should be. Men want women who will rely on them and look up to their manly power and chivalrous ways and sit at home on weekends just dreaming that he would call. They want to be in control of a relationship and they want to be the pursuers. The problem with this situation is single men today, as a general rule, lack the confidence to actually ask women out.

Single women, then, fearing they are going to be single for the rest of their mortal life, get out there and do something. They graduate from college, get a good job, and buy a house. They become women of good fortune, and thus doom themselves to that single life they feared from the beginning.

So what is a single girl to do? Should she purposely keep herself in college for years on end? Stay living at home with the parents? Lie about her age? Today I say no.

The way to end this vicious cycle is for men to grow a pair and ask women out. Be glad the woman has aspirations and has gone far enough in life that she can afford a house and has a career. You should want a woman with a 401K and the ability to help you pay off your student loans. This “ambition” thing? Its attractive. Figure it out.