
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
From the single ladies of BeyoncĂ© and Taylor Swift songs to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's irreverent television series Fleabag (2016â2019) to as far back as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, the stereotype of the damaged single woman has long pervaded music, books, television, and Hollywood movies. Spinster tropes, witch burnings, and nineteenth-century diagnoses of hysteria have reflected and continue to inform the stories told about society's singletons, most notoriously in the original bunny boiler, Fatal Attraction (1987), and popularized in Single White Female (1992) and Promising Young Woman (2020).
In Single & Psycho, author Caroline Young explores how broader social trends such as the antifeminist backlash of the 1980s, contemporary debates about tradwives and childless cat ladies, and the absence of single women of color on-screen shape the way women are (mis)perceived and (mis)treated. Young weaves the history of a stereotype with her own fight against stigma as a single woman as well as her struggles with infertility, infusing incisive analysis with personal experience in this approachable, savvy exposé of one of mainstream media's most enduring clichés.
Single & Psycho: How Pop Culture Created the Unstable Single Woman is a dynamic addition to the ongoing dialogue surrounding the #MeToo movement and societal expectations of women.
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. âIâm Not Going to Be Ignoredâ: The Creation of the Bunny Boiler
- Chapter 2. The Madwoman in the Attic
- Chapter 3. Bachelor Girls
- Chapter 4. The Good Wife and the Bad Girl
- Chapter 5. 5 a.m. Breakfasts on Fifth Avenue and a Countercultural Shake-Up
- Chapter 6. The 1970s: Feminism, New Hollywood, and Blaxploitation
- Chapter 7. Is It Really Free Love?
- Chapter 8. From Feminism to Fighting for the Nuclear Family
- Chapter 9. Burnout, Biological Clocks, and Boiling Rabbits: The Career Womanâs Despair
- Chapter 10. Baby Booms and Working Girls
- Chapter 11. Bitches from Hell
- Chapter 12. Sex and Fear: The Sharp Edge of the Erotic Thriller
- Chapter 13. The Threat Is inside the House
- Chapter 14. The Rise of the Singleton
- Chapter 15. Playboy Bunnies, Slut-Shaming, and the Aughtsâ Double Standards
- Chapter 16. Alcoholic, Divorced, and Highly Anxious
- Chapter 17. Fleabag, Fourth-Wave Feminism, and the Destructive Single Woman
- Chapter 18. âIâll Show You Crazyâ
- Chapter 19. Tradwives and Childless Cat Ladies
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index