The Amazing Single Cat Lady!*
March 7, 2025 10:30 AM Subscribe
*approved by the Office of Patriarchal Subversion Revenge of the ‘childless cat lady’: New research shows single women are the happiest people in the world (slTOStar)
Never fear! Single men are discussed! Married couples are discussed!
Also, I love the illustrations.
Never fear! Single men are discussed! Married couples are discussed!
Also, I love the illustrations.
To clarify, the linked article and the main cited study say that "single women are substantially happier than single men." That does seem to disprove the stilly stereotype of the swinging bachelor and the miserable spinster.
But when you compare married and unmarried people overall, married people consistently report being substantially happier. This is true for all groups, including both women and men, and the "marital premium" (the difference in self-reported happiness between married and unmarried groups) is the same for men and women.
Of course, 1) there is huge variation; plenty of married people are miserable and plenty of singletons are happy, and 2) correlation not being causation, this does not prove that increasing marriage rates will improve overall happiness.
(The original linked article does cite research that finds "the happiest demographic of all were single women in their 40s who didn’t have children," but that research is wrong.)
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:06 AM on March 7 [1 favorite]
But when you compare married and unmarried people overall, married people consistently report being substantially happier. This is true for all groups, including both women and men, and the "marital premium" (the difference in self-reported happiness between married and unmarried groups) is the same for men and women.
Of course, 1) there is huge variation; plenty of married people are miserable and plenty of singletons are happy, and 2) correlation not being causation, this does not prove that increasing marriage rates will improve overall happiness.
(The original linked article does cite research that finds "the happiest demographic of all were single women in their 40s who didn’t have children," but that research is wrong.)
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:06 AM on March 7 [1 favorite]
Isn't the answer to happiness having cats, whether you're single or married? That's my theory, at least. We have five cats and we're pretty happy these days, state of the world notwithstanding.
posted by jzb at 11:13 AM on March 7 [20 favorites]
posted by jzb at 11:13 AM on March 7 [20 favorites]
jzb, my hardcore unshakeable belief is that despite the horrors of the world, a world that has cats in it is a world worth loving.
posted by Kitteh at 11:24 AM on March 7 [6 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 11:24 AM on March 7 [6 favorites]
To borrow and twist a line from Jane Austen, one of literature’s most famous spinsters: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman not in possession of a man must be in want of a husband cat :)
posted by HearHere at 12:07 PM on March 7 [3 favorites]
posted by HearHere at 12:07 PM on March 7 [3 favorites]
I am an asexual woman and my housemate is a man with depression; we both have cats and I can definitely agree that both of us are much happier because of the cats. HypotheticalHousemate has been noticeably brighter since he got his emotional support kitten.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 2:13 PM on March 7 [11 favorites]
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 2:13 PM on March 7 [11 favorites]
Fifteen years taking prescriptions
Now a shrink like, I don't know, maybe get a kitten
posted by Ausamor at 2:42 PM on March 7 [5 favorites]
Now a shrink like, I don't know, maybe get a kitten
posted by Ausamor at 2:42 PM on March 7 [5 favorites]
I would be oh, so, so happy to be single woman with cats, and my dog, and of course a horse and a mule or at least two horses. Especially if I could move the menagerie to Crone Island.
I don't think I've spent more than a total of six or seven months alone in my life after high school, between cousins, roomates, live-ins, marital partners, and kids. I'd really like to be alone in my space for a bit. Although, my cat is pretty well ubiquitous.
It's not that I dislike Mr. BlueHorse, but we have his and hers cats already that could easily be split up, and we would both be amenable to visitation with the dog. If not Crone Island, perhaps a duplex would suffice.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:40 PM on March 7
I don't think I've spent more than a total of six or seven months alone in my life after high school, between cousins, roomates, live-ins, marital partners, and kids. I'd really like to be alone in my space for a bit. Although, my cat is pretty well ubiquitous.
It's not that I dislike Mr. BlueHorse, but we have his and hers cats already that could easily be split up, and we would both be amenable to visitation with the dog. If not Crone Island, perhaps a duplex would suffice.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:40 PM on March 7
Mod note: This single link post and that's perfectly fine, 'cause cat illustrations! Added to the sidebar and Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 4:47 PM on March 7
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 4:47 PM on March 7
May I add to Ausamor's post that if the Aesop Rock song of HypotheticalHousemate's life is 'Kirby', mine is 'No Regrets'. I'm a single cat lady with ART, and I do the things I want to do as they occur to me, because nobody is stopping me.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 8:31 PM on March 7 [1 favorite]
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 8:31 PM on March 7 [1 favorite]
This isn't really news, right? I read long ago that unmarried women live longest, and unmarried men die fastest. Statistically, marriage is good for men and bad for women, at least when you're talking about cis het marriages; all other types of marriage are new enough that I wouldn't think we'd have much data on folks in those marriages dying of natural causes as yet. I suspect it is very much a phenomenon to do with the pressures placed specifically on cis women in het marriages, though. Basically, a wife is a person who gives, and a husband is a person who takes. Speaking as a cis het man, it seems fairly accurate to me, from what I've seen.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:57 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:57 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]
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posted by Lemkin at 10:39 AM on March 7 [4 favorites]