Single Women in Popular Culture

By: Anthea Taylor

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Synopsis: Has the way single women are represented in western popular culture really changed over the past few decades? What might the single women we find in chick lit novels, on reality television shows, and in self-help manuals reveal about postfeminism and its politics? From Bridget Jones to Carrie Bradshaw, the single woman has become more visible than ever before, prompting some commentators to suggest that she is now celebrated where once she was denigrated. However, in this book Anthea Taylor compellingly demonstrates how the single woman despite appearing at times to be glamorized continues to be a deeply problematic figure in popular culture. Drawing upon a wide range of media forms, she finds that singleness is commonly represented as a state that women must actively work to overcome, while coupledom is vigorously promoted as a postfeminist 'choice'. In this thought-provoking book, Taylor foregrounds how postfeminism operates in tandem with neoliberalism to limit the stories being told about single women. Characteristic of the book's nuanced approach, she also examines sites where women are attempting to refigure and validate singleness, including the blogosphere. Making an important contribution to scholarship on both singleness and postfeminism, Single Women in Popular Culture is a timely and politically engaged account of how modern single women are represented and why it matters. "