Babes in Guyland

Before I begin, let me make my intentions clear:  This is not, I repeat NOT, my way of finding a date via my blog, nor is it meant to stir or ignite any type of controversy, particularly among my male readers.  

(Do I have male readers?)

This is, however, a direct result of my duty as a journalist.  OK so I'm not actually a journalist, but if you're reading, then I'm reporting.  And if I have any insight into the life of a 20-something single girl living and dating in New York City, then I'm gonna dish it.

First up, we have "Guyland" (full Newsweek article here).  This article circulated through my roommates and friends...some found it depressing, others interesting, almost all true.  We open with the following paragraph - 

It's "booze o'clock" on a recent Thursday night on New York's Fire Island—a rolling, inexact hour when 10 vacationing guys decide to kick off their nightly binge. Between tequila shots and pulls of beer, the sun-baked twentysomethings roar on the deck of their rented beach house, sounding the depths of maledom: sexual conquests, mastery of fire ("I'll grill that potato salad") and escape from the monotony of girlfriends and work. "I like starting things," says one guy, as if to sum up his generation. "Then it gets boring."

Key takeaways from Paragraph 1:  20-something guys like to a) travel in packs, b) drink beer and grill, and c) start things that they do not want to finish.  I just restate the facts.  Moving on...

"What used to be regressive weekends are now whole years in the lives of some guys," Kimmel tells Newsweek. In almost 400 interviews with mainly white, college-educated twentysomethings, he found that the lockstep march to manhood is often interrupted by a debauched and decadelong odyssey, in which youths buddy together in search of new ways to feel like men. Actually, it's more like all the old ways—drinking, smoking, kidding, carousing—turned up a notch in a world where adolescent demonstrations of manhood have replaced the real thing: responsibility."

Summary from P2:  White, 20-something, college-educated guys do not equal "responsibility."  The article then goes on to tell us that said men have a "bad attitude about marriage" and are "downwardly mobile" and endlessly adolescent." 

Yikes.

We follow "Guyland" up with "Guys are Few in the Pews," courtesy of USA Today (full article here) and relevant to church-going gals like myself.  To sum it up, 

Women outnumber men in attendance in every major Christian denomination, and they are 20% to 25% more likely to attend worship at least weekly.

Yeah, that sums the whole thing up.

So.  The million dollar question - What now?  What does this mean for 20-something single girls living and dating in New York City, which is exactly what many of my friends and I are?  How does one read articles like these and not feel a bit...disheartened?  I am nothing if not an optimist, but the cold hard facts from two of the most widely-read publications in the country don't exactly leave me feeling jazzed about my chances of meeting Prince Charming next Friday night or, for that matter, Sunday morning.

I don't have any answers.  I'm just feeding you something to munch on while I try to figure this whole thing out.  Thoughts, answers and, as always, comments welcome...