Quirkyalone: It’s a mindset

The lovely ladies of “Sex and the City” live in world few of us recognize: endless possiblities of romantic encounters, with dates pouring out of every yoga class or cup of coffee or (for Samantha) sight of a hot young priest on a Sunday morning. In a study released by the University of Chicago, soon to be published as a book, researchers argue that single people form most bonds through social and institutional networks, not chance meetings. (Which won’t stop the hoards posting on Craig’s List Missed Connections, although I don’t know of any one who has had Desperately Seeking Susan success with those kinds of personals ads.)

Instead, the authors put forth ideas of single “markets.” As reported by the Chicago Tribune (among others ), the markets can be divided into “transactional” and “relational.” Cast in QA terms, it seems that quirkysluts would be in the transactional market, more open to meeting people in bars and parties while more traditional QAs would be more likely to find partners in relational settings, faciliated by friends.

The real news in this survey, though, is the increasing number of people choosing the single life. Edward Laumann, the project’s lead author and an expert in the sociology of sexuality, says, “On average, half your life is going to be in this single and dating state, and this is a big change from the 1950s.” As quoted in CNN: “What’s going on now is making the sexual revolution of the ’60s and ’70s pale in comparison,” says Eli Coleman, director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota. We can only infer that he is referring to the QA movement.

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2. Quirkyalones Unite to Watch the Sex and the City Movie!
3. Quirkyalone Movie Night at the Kabuki: A Private Screening of Sex and the City
4. Women Writers Tell All: Single In the City
5. Our “Sex” Party is Sold Out! But You Can Come at 8