Sex and the Single (Neoliberal) Girl: Perspectives on Being Single Among Socioeconomically Diverse Young Women

Discussion, we reflect on and summarize the thematic patterns found in participants’ responses, with affluent undergraduates seeming to characterize being single as positive and self-enhancing, the low-SES undergraduates seeing it as a strategy for self-advancement, and the low-SES non-students framing it in defensive, self-protective terms. Despite these differences, all participants seemed to draw on common neoliberal tenets. We argue that participants’ predominantly positive perspectives on being single may be at least partially attributed to commercialized feminism and an agency imperative that requires young women to cast all circumstances and conditions in light of individual choice, will, and responsibility.
Source: Sex Roles - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: research