Mr. Perfect doesn’t exist, so it’s time to face cold reality and settle for Mr. Good Enough. This is Lori Gottlieb’s advice in Saturday’s Guardian to single women. ALL of whom, she assures us, are secretly desperate to get married and start popping out sprogs. She’s so convinced of this that she has written a book about it.
Everyone wants an alpha male. Alpha males have good genes. It’s biology. Not enough alpha males to go around? Never mind. If it’s just sperm and child support poor lonely singletons are looking for, why wouldn’t Mr. Mediocre-but-stable-making-good money be Mr. Just-as-good-as-anyone-else?
And since we’re being brutally honest, why the hell would Mr. Perfect be slumming for Gottlieb’s pathetic and shallow version of the single woman in the first place? One really has to wonder who actually is settling for whom?
Being reduced to our biological imperatives leaves little room for imagination, for creativity, for passion, or even just for fun. We simply settle, then we get on with it. It’s possible that being lonely is worse than being bored, but it’s very unlikely that settling for one will cure the other.