Celebrating Single-ness...?

Wow! It's been a really long time since I've updated my blog. I promise I'll be better about it in the future.

This entry is inspired by a huge realization-- I can't think of any songs that actually celebrate being single.

One of my favorite Sex and the City episodes is when Carrie has to take her shoes off at a baby shower-- and someone steals her shoes. The mom that hosted the shower refuses to pay for Carrie's more than $400 Manolos, even though it was her fault that they were stolen in the first place. This prompts Carrie to realize that there are no times when people who are single are celebrated after graduation. Birthdays don't count, since everyone has birthdays. Carrie realizes that she has spent about $2,000 on the woman in question: an engagement gift, wedding gift, and baby shower gifts for her 3 kids. And yet, as a single woman, Carrie gets bupkis. (At the end of the show, the woman finally relents when Carrie "registers" at Manolo Blahnik for her "marriage to herself!")

Now, as depressing as that sounds, it's totally true. And the songs we listen to totally reflect this. There are tons of songs voicing a desire to have that special someone, but none that I can think of really celebrating being single.

Just two songs from Broadway musicals to get us thinking:
1) "Someone to Watch Over Me" from Crazy for You. Besides the fact that my inner feminist cringes at most of the song, the last stanza is:

Won't you tell him please to put on some speed,
Follow my lead,
Oh, how I need,
Someone to watch over me.

2) "Being Alive" from Company, when Bobby realizes he wants to get married:

Somebody need me too much,
Somebody know me too well,
Somebody pull me up short
And put me through hell
And give me support
For being alive,
Make me alive.

Make me confused,
Mock me with praise,
Let me be used,
Vary my days.
But alone is alone, not alive!

Songwriters seem to be so good at voicing this need to not be alone, but what about voicing being happy while unattached?? Maybe I've been reading too many Joshua Harris books-- but it's true that society pushes us to want to be in relationships. Something is wrong with us if we are single-- and that makes me want to throw things. I'm perfectly happy being single right now, with my transient state of moving around and grad school. And yet, this is not OK in society. People worry that I'll end up an old maid or something.

Even in the non-Broadway world I haven't managed to find any songs that celebrate singleness without going man-hater or scary. "So What" by Pink is a good example of this-- it's singleness with a bitter and scary edge. Even "All the Single Ladies" by Beyonce, which at first seemed to have some potential, goes into a scolding of an ex for caring that she is dancing with someone else. "If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it" she sings over and over.

Are there no songs celebrating a person's right and happiness of not pursuing a relationship??