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The latest white-hot buzz, particularly among women: According to a statistical analysis of 2005 census data by the New York Times, 51 percent of U.S. women in 2005 are living without a spouse.
That’s up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.
But as a member of that statistical group myself, the part that chapped my sensibilities was that the Times illustrated the story with a photo of a single woman, petting her cat.
There we have it: A snapshot of moral decay. Women not only have abandoned the role of wife; they have taken to living with cats.
Female. Single. Lives alone. Has a cat. In the real-life dictionary of 2007, that’s shorthand for “loser.”
I suppose it could be worse. A few centuries ago, single woman plus cat equaled “witch.”
Nowadays, ridicule of cat ladies is a staple of sitcoms and comedy stand-up routines and movies, but I never expected the august Times to buy into it.
Women live alone for a host of reasons; some by choice and some by circumstance. Their solitude often is temporary; many marry or remarry. Others are in no hurry to wed, for whatever reason. Why fret about them?
I’m more concerned that too many widows are forced to live in genteel poverty because they have outlived their pensions.
I worry that too many single mothers still have trouble finding affordable child care and wresting adequate child support from their children’s absent or indifferent fathers.
No doubt this statistic will stir up the usual sniping over whose fault it is that marriage isn’t the foundation of society that it was 50 years ago. So be it.
But let’s also concern ourselves with the fact that domestic abuse remains primarily abuse of wives. Women who escape such abuse may be understandably reluctant to remarry.
The census figures contain a larger irony: In October, the United States’ population reached 300 million. Women comprise more than half of that number, yet most of them now live alone in a nation that is more crowded than ever. Talk about bucking the odds ...
Whatever the reason, and whether it’s good or bad, due to economics or feminism, an enduring trend or a statistical blip, I’m sure of this:
The fact that most women now live alone has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with cats.
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