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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Begins a discussion of single life, November 24, 2005
This review is from: The New Single Woman (Hardcover)
This book deserves attention because it's way above other books I've read on the single life. The author uses her sociological training to develop a topic that's increasingly relevant: 42 million women over 18 are unmarried, and the numbers are growing.
Cultural stereotypes continue into the 21st century. Margaret Maron's recent novel, Rituals of the Season, has 2 characters joking about the difference between a spinster and an old maid.
On the plus side, Trimberger offers an unusually deep and serious perspective. She rightly notes that our medical, legal and economic infrastructure favors couples, in everything from pricing vacations to limiting visiting rights in a hospital. And while single women turn to friendship networks rather than to relatives, friends often can't get time off to care for a sick friend (or even attend a friend's funeral).
That said, I wish Trimberger had been even more scientific and systematic about her sample. She wanted to include a variety: divorced, never-married, widowed, gay, bisexual. This option means there will only be one or two representatives of each category, so she can't draw conclusions and make comparisons. I'd be curious to compare once-married with never-married women and also single-by-choice with single-by-happenstance women.
I'd also like to see more attention devoted to the frustrations experienced by even the most self-accepting single women. For instance, as a career consultant, I am aware that many small towns are hostile (or at least unaccepting) of single women. One of my married clients, settled happily in a small town, acknowledged, "This is a great place for couples with children, like us. It would be awful to be single here."
At the same time, many careers, including academics, tend to create the most options away from large cities. There's a reason for the term "college town.
And the medical world tends to stereotype singles. I've had first-hand experience with prejudices directed against those who are single and childless. The whole system is based on the assumption that every patient comes with a family.
But one book can't possibly accomplish all these goals. Therefore, I applaud Trimberger for taking a very important first step: acknowledging the need for serious study of the single state and the social and individual factors that contribute to life satisfaction among singles.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The real thing, October 3, 2005
This review is from: The New Single Woman (Hardcover)
I love this book. It is such a refreshing change from all of the usual nonsense you hear in the media about single women. Rather than just assume that single women are home crying in their beer, the author (Kay Trimberger) talked at great length with dozens of single women who were in their 30s or older - some divorced or widow, others single all their life. Then Trimberger talked to them again nearly a decade later. The women who did especially well (most of them) were not frantically pursuing that elusive soul mate. Rather, they had whole networks of people who cared about each other, homes that they loved, jobs that engaged their interests and talents, and a great appreciation for solitude as well as sociability. In short, they were really humans, with lives filled with difficulties and challenges but also plenty of joys and rewards. Trimberger is a sociologist, and her writing is thoughtful and informed. She takes on one big topic after another - relationships (not just romantic ones), sexuality (not just the hyped kind), parenting and not parenting, etc - and talks about each one in ways that are intriguing. The New Single Woman is not about the party line, and that makes it a party well worth celebrating.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking and realistic, November 20, 2005
This review is from: The New Single Woman (Hardcover)
Kay Trimberger's excellent volume showcases the lives, the strengths, and the vulnerabilities of women in mid-life as they craft `singular lives' that fulfill them and engage them. The case studies are rich with descriptive detail, but Dr. Trimberger's academic credentials are also in evidence: historical detail, socio-economic data, and sociological theory are also embedded in the text. The narrative is, however, very accessible. Indeed, I could not put the book down.
Six features of a fulfilling single life are outlined by Trimberger. They are: (a) satisfying work, (b) relationships with the next generation, (c) a home or "nest," (d) fulfilling engagement with friends and extended family members, (e) involvement in a community or neighborhood, and (f) an acceptance of one's sensuality/sexuality, whether it is experienced erotically with others or through sensory fulfillment as a celibate individual. (More about this below.) The context in which these six characteristics of a fulfilling life were developed was provided by Trimberger's interviewing 27 middle class, educated women at two different time periods, almost a decade apart. She interweaves their stories through-out the book, and I took away something special from each case. I was personally most touched by the chapter that looked at how death was faced by single women, whether it was their own impending death or the deaths of loved ones.
Trimberger is also adamant that her research and theoretical platform not be construed as somehow demeaning married life or that she is a `champion' of singleness. Her intention is simply to create a "cultural narrative" that emphasizes the resources to be cultivated by women who find themselves single and as well as their own dignity as individuals -- as opposed to being somehow deficient or incomplete because they are not coupled.
A comment is in order about the sixth fulfilling feature noted above, the acceptance of one's sensuality/sexuality whether with others or alone. Trimberger notes that masturbation is just fine, whether coupled or not, but she also wants to generate dialogue about alternatives if one does not find another person with whom to engage erotically and sexually. What then? Yes, one can certainly pleasure oneself sensually and sexually, but in addition, we should consider our opportunities for enhancing our sensual experience in non-erotic ways. One of her case studies features a woman who is an avid flamenco dancer and experiences her dancing as intensely passionate and sensual. As for myself (and I do happen to be married), I love the touch, the fragrance, and the delicacy of flowers - indeed, I'm a self-proclaimed "flower floozy." I surround my self with flowers in the garden and in my home. They are definitely charged with passion and sensuality for me. Why can't we allow these other avenues of rich and intense engagement with our physical and sensory world to be acceptable paths of fulfillment for single and coupled people, regardless of gender, instead of seeing them as "mere" sublimation of a sexual/genital focus?
The New Single Woman is a breath of fresh air. Buy it, read it, share it with others, and know that the likelihood, if you are a woman, is extremely high that at some point in your life (or at repeated points), you will be single.
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