[1]
Right before Thanksgiving, Ellen McCarthy, a fine journalist from The Washington Post, who had seen my blog, got in touch. Although Ellen usually writes about weddings, she was curious about single women who were living satisfying lives. She flew to L.A. to meet me, we had two pleasurable, extended sessions together, and in parting, I said, “make me look good.” When the article [2] appeared online, my photo was accompanied by the headline, “The Lonely Hearts.” I almost passed out. How could they twist my upbeat story into a wallflower tale? Ellen wasn’t responsible for the headlines or selecting the photo. I appreciate her honest and nuanced reporting, but there’s a cloak of melancholy surrounding the piece, that reflects a wider cultural bias. To be single, is to have gotten the short end of a lonely stick.
Image: Christian Patterson [1]