single city girl

i have just completed my paper on the emergence of the single city girl in american culture between 1960-1975. it was amazing, i got the chance to discover and develop the stereotype that i aspire to be, a single city girl living in los angeles, progressing my own career and finding some interesting, attractive boys to take me out to dinner every so often. things are working well, and the paper only manged to confirm the life that i chose to live and the contradictions inherent within.

the ulitimate quote of the single city girl is from helen gurley brown's "sex and the single girl" (1962):

romance is a reward for, but secondary to, perfecting oneself.

the irony of this statement is unbelieveable, here is the footnote at the very bottom of my paper:

The irony of this statement is not lost on me, I was just uncertain of how to integrate it into the paper. Even though the post-feminist single girl is living for herself and does not want for a husband, the original philosophy promotes self-improvement for the end goal of marriage. And this ironic twist is often the culmination of the single girl’s pursuits (see the conclusion of Sex In the City) Brown does not recognize, nor do most of the single city girls portrayed on television, that self-improvement can be a reward unto itself. Rather, improving one for oneself becomes lip service for the ideology of the cause; that we as single, independent women do not need men.

check out the paper at:

Creating Stereotypes: The Emergence and Commodification of the Single City Girl