Single in Boston
As a single woman on the East Coast, I felt somewhat vindicated by a survey in the Sunday Globe. It’s making its way around the internet today. Richard Florida writes that women on the our side of the country have a much harder time finding a man than if they lived on the West Coast.
Still, I take issue with his evaluation of dating in Boston.
Greater Boston is unusual among large metro areas. It is one of the very few with a near perfect balance of singles - having just 1,600 or so more women than men - 604,960 men to 606,580 women.
In my experience, the balance has not been perfect by any means. My female friends—who have different backgrounds, personalities, and physiques—are largely single. Around Boston Daily HQ, most of the unmarried men have girlfriends, while the unmarried women are left to blog about their trials and tribulations.
Is it that all the unattached men in Boston are unattractive and unemployed, or are the 1,600 other single women in the city having better luck than my friends and I are? In any case, I’d like to propose an exchange program for singles. The East Coast can send over a few women in exchange for some of the dateless guys on the West Coast. That way everybody’s happy.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Amen Sister!
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I really like this idea. Because I am CONVINCED that there are no single men in this city.
Also, it’s probably a lot warmer in CA and I can get behind that.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 am
I am a single guy in Boston. I’m educated, employed, secure financially, and a genuinely nice person. I’m fit and healthy and I’ve been told that I’m attractive. However, I’ve found it quite difficult to meet single girls in the Boston area, or at least ones I’m compatible with. I have friends in the same situation. The biggest issue I see is that girls often have an attitude about them, that you better impress them somehow or they won’t give you the time of day. If people were simply more open and approachable, I think that would solve a lot of their frustrations.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Trust me, you don’t want the West Coast to send over any of its single men. Gah! The dating in California is no better than in Boston, in fact it may be worse. According to that study, there’s an overabundance of men here…except the study neglects to mention the fact that this overabundance includes mostly borderline retarded men whose only goal for the day is to bench 300 pounds at the gym. *Especially* in Orange County. I had more dates when I lived in Boston - at least the men there had some smarts and weren’t complete Hollywood himbos. But like Annette says, it is warmer here…
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
A 1:1 male-to-female ratio is only ideal if you have a balanced gay demographic. If you figure that Boston proper is 12% queer (according to the Williams Institute) and there are twice as many gay men as lesbians (probably fair, if you believe the demographers), that 1,600-odd man-shortage starts looking a little more dire.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Oh, and P.S., Boston het-girls: you don’t know from tribulations. Try firing up Nerve.com in Ithaca, NY to find that
a. there are seven WSW under 40 within a 30-mile radius;
b. this is a dazzling array of options, compared to the scene at the local neighborhood bar;
c. upon further examination, three of them are your friend Barb.
April 5th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
If “blogging about their trials and tribulations” is their solution to perceived problems, they may already have identified the problem’s root cause…..
May 4th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Getting a date is difficult these days, no actually a serious relationship is hard to obtain these days. I think the internet plays a role. Now men(to be fair-women too) have a list of single women and with a click of a button they have a date with another woman-no need to settle down. I say forget the surveys-all the single women I know want a relationship and to marry and have children. Maybe, it’s just not at 22 anymore.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
interesting;
from a man’s point of view i think the complete opposite. it is near IMPOSSIBLE to get a date with a woman. wait- impossible to find a woman who doesn’t have some deep seed maladaptive personality or mood disorder- such that you can ask them out. and when we do find a pyschologically well female- you’ll have to find one that isn’t
1)staring at her shoes
2) putting her hand in your face
3) running away- so she can go home and cry in her 7&7 that “there’s no nice boys around”
we men know that woman can have any guy at any time, for any reason—and if you are not psychotic- it will develop into a relationship…
so gals- for god sake- put yourself out there- stop staring at your shoes, smile at us, say something nice, show the least bit of interested, flush your paxil down the toilet- and maybe you’ll find love intead of sulking about it
June 16th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I agree with travelgirl. I live in SF, which was recently voted #1 for singles in the US. Yeah, single gay men maybe. Or single effeminate men. I am an East coast girl that moved to CA for a job and hoped the dating would be better here. But I am tempted to move back the East Coast because I am so sick of metrosexual guys that spend more time on their hair than I do (and I work in the beauty industry)!