Singles Have the Right To Be Tired, Too

Guest Writer: Merve

You know how we always keep talking about the discrimination between men and women, right? Now, let’s start discussing the discrimination rooted between married and single women, shall we?

I would like to emphasize in the very first place that I’m for improvement of women’s working conditions to the max. I mention at every opportunity the endeavour that we need to put in to make life easier for those women who “have to” work overtime for really long hours. I refer what is done to those women who had to go back to work on the 41^st day as oppression.

Another issue that matters to me is that managers constantly assign tasks to the singles, even explicitly saying “You guys are single at the end of the day, it would not be a big deal for you!”. Excuse me but what about working hours, do they not exist? Yes, they do. Married or single, are we not present at work between the same hours? Yes, we are. Then why would I do that job simply because I am single? That task should be given to me because I am more competent or have expertise in that particular field, or I should learn something new etc., but for God’s sake, not because I am single.

I mean managers do this as they are managers, alright, fine. But then our colleagues, are they not discriminating us in the same way, even more severely? Feeling washed-out, you happen to rest your head for a second whilst drinking a cup of coffee and they strike you right away: “Why are you so tired? Have you been rocking a crib all night?”. At that very moment, I recall all the hustle that I went through the previous day; lectures, papers, mails and on top of everything, chores such as doing laundry, cooking, having guests at home etc., which are considered to be undertaken merely by married women. Should you say, “I am a little busy with my university course these days.”, then they carry on and hit you one more time: “Well, you are single at the moment. We’ll see what happens once you get married like us.”.

For crying out loud! I am single and can take on this much of hassle. I am single and can do a university course. I am single and can go see a movie. I was able to go to that gig yesterday as I am single. All of this is simply because I am single. What if I was married? No way would (or should) I be able to carry out any of this stuff.

It really does piss me off what these comments implicitly try to tell: If you are married, you cannot continue to do a university course. If you are married, you will get royally beaten up, so much that your whole life routine will shatter into pieces, making you hanker for your good-old single days. In the end, if you are single, then you don’t have anything to do, so you are not entitled to be tired.

Now that married life is so challenging, overwhelming and consuming, why on earth are you even asking “Are you not seeing any one? When are we going to see you getting married?”?

Don’t you guys love me at all?!