Spinster in the City

So what is a spinster really?

I found the following synonyms for spinster on Thesaurus.com: miss, old maid, unmarried, virgin, woman.

I think virgin is my personal favorite. But even better are the synonyms for the above terms:

Old maid:-bachelor girl, fuddy-duddy, lone woman (like the lone ranger?), maiden, prig, prude (I guess we didn’t want to get married because marriage is just too naughty), single woman, spinster, unmarried woman

Unmarried (just the ones that relate to women):celibate, chaste, cherry, eligible, fancy-free, footloose, husbandless, maiden, old maid, single, sole, spinster, spouseless, unattached, uncoupled, unhitched, unwed, unwedded, virgin, virginal, widowed

Miss:damsel, female, gal, lass, lassie, maid, maiden, missy, schoolgirl, spinster, virgin, young lady, wench (oh, it just meant girl?),

What about Bachelorette?

So the synonyms do throw a light on how society views spinsters, they are prudish, virgins that are all alone. Interesting. I think the only definition that everyone could agree on though is that a spinster is an unmarried woman. But herein lies the question that all spinsters agonize over. Is a spinster someone who just happens not to be married or someone who is not marriable?

Sometimes it feels like that latter is true, but really can a spinster be stereotyped into a certain kind of person? Do they look or act a certain way? It can't be that all mousy girls with glasses and frumpy clothes are spinsters or that they are all pudgy and socially awkward. If those stereotypes were ever true, they definitely aren't true any longer. I know many gorgeous, confidant spinsters and actually very few demure, awkward ones.

Of course all women are nubile at any age in life. They may be getting married for the first time or for the tenth time at any age. And I'm not kidding about the tenth time, my mom's friend has been married at least that many times (is she going for a world's record?). Anyway just think of Wendy Watson who married Elder Russel M. Nelson recently. That was her first marriage at like the age of 50. But even though she was a spinster for a long time, it didn't stop her from becoming a marriage counselor. Well more later on famous spinsters, LDS and not, but I think the conclusion here is that a spinster cannot really be stereotyped. There may be a myriad of reasons for not being married, but I don't think any of them includes wearing glasses.