Tough Love

It had been awhile since I'd checked in with Sarah Haskins, so I thought a Saturday would be a good day for a laugh. Today's featured video: Tough Love.

According to the video, VH1 has a new series called Tough Love. On the show, one man "who knows single woman better than anyone else" tries to teach his participants how to be or at least pretend to be perfect women when dating.

The host, Steve Ward, uses some pretty interesting tactics to make the women on his show more "dateable." According to Haskin's video, he has them pose for sexy photo shoots, have lingerie parties and participate in a game show called Cute or Crazy. During the game show, secrets are revealed about the women, and the men in the audience get to rate the girls as cute or crazy based on these secrets. I personally would rate that exercise as crazy.

I liked how Haskins looked at the show Tough Love to demostrate something that is prevalent in our culture -- people think that there is something wrong with single women. I think Haskins said it best when she compared singleness in our culture to a deadly illness. "Worse than leprosy you ask?" she said. "Yes, because lepers live in colonies and single women live alone."

Along with that, I think it's funny that it's terrible to be a single woman but it's cool to be a swinging bachelor that is afraid of commitment. That type of man is glorified in many movies and in our culture, and yet, whenever there is a show about a single woman, she is desperately trying to find a men 'to make her life complete.' BARF!

And so, due to all the 'chick-flicks' in which a woman seems lonely and unhappy without a man and also due to prevailing degrading thoughts about single women in our culture, I have to say that I've felt the pressure to find a man more than once. Some of my friends and members of my family ask me if I'm dating anyone before they'll even ask about school and my future career. Many of my family members and friends realize that school and my future are tremendously important to me, yet some of them are more curious if I've found a man or not.

However, I can't blame them for being more concerned about me finding a man than finding an amazing career. That's what our culture tells us is important through movies and also old stereotypes of women.

But to me, singleness isn't horrible. I can devote myself more to school and my work on the paper, and I have more time to cultivate life-long friendships. And yes, sometimes I do wish I could find my perfect man, but overall, I think I join Haskins when I say, I'd rather be single than be a leper.

**Photo taken from Time Out Chicago.