Is There A Female Loneliness Epidemic?
There are few things we can collectively agree on these days, but a handful of cultural truths have stuck: raising iPad babies is a bad idea, AI will probably ruin most of our lives, and men are facing a devastating loneliness crisis. These have entered the ambient cultural narrative. Things we just know to be true. But for every problem we’ve agreed to notice, there are others we keep ignoring. And for some reason, despite all the hand-wringing over male disaffection, almost no one has stopped to ask: are women lonely, too?
Not to brag about being ahead of the curve or anything, but I had been giving it some thought. I’ve written a few pieces about modern loneliness, especially in response to toxic dating dynamics and the self-disintegration that comes with being terminally online. I even wrote recently about how single women tend to fare better emotionally than single men, thanks to deeper friendships, stronger family ties, and more emotionally reciprocal support systems. Oh, and less of a preoccupation with sex. That helps, too.