Totally unrelated matters. I don't even know why I'm putting them in the same post. It just makes no sense for me to put two stories with absolutely no shared connective tissue in the same post, but I've got Monday Madness!
Young women are more liberal than they have been in decades, according to a Gallup analysis of more than 20 years of polling data.
Over the past few years, about 4 in 10 young women between the ages of 18 and 29 have described their political views as liberal, compared with two decades ago when about 3 in 10 identified that way.
It's not just that they lean left, which women, particularly young women, have always done.
It's that hardline progressive Marxism is now a core part of their identities as human beings.
For many young women, their liberal identity is not just a new label. The share of young women who hold liberal views on the environment, abortion, race relations and gun laws has also jumped by double digits, Gallup found.
Young women "aren't just identifying as liberal because they like the term or they're more comfortable with the term, or someone they respect uses the term," said Lydia Saad, the director of U.S. social research at Gallup. "They have actually become much more liberal in their actual viewpoints."
Becoming a more cohesive political group with distinctly liberal views could turn young women into a potent political force, according to Saad. While it is hard to pinpoint what is making young women more liberal, they now are overwhelmingly aligned on many issues, which could make it easier for campaigns to motivate them.
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Young women began to diverge ideologically from other groups, including men between 18 and 29, women over 30 and men over 30, during Democrat Barack Obama's presidency. That trend appears to have accelerated more recently, around the election of Republican Donald Trump, the #MeToo movement and increasingly successful efforts by the anti-abortion movement to erode abortion access. At the same time, more women, mostly Democrats, were elected to Congress, as governor and to state legislatures, giving young women new representation and role models in politics.
The change in young women's political identification is happening across the board, Gallup found, rather than being propelled by a specific subgroup.
Taylor Swift's endorsement Tuesday of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, after her debate against Trump, illustrated one of the issues where young women have moved to the left. In Swift's Instagram announcing the endorsement praised Harris and running mate Tim Walz for championing reproductive rights.
Now to that unrelated point: Young spinsters are now spinning their loneliness and lack of romantic relationships with men as, get this, yet another girlboss point they're "self-empowered" by.
The lonely childless cat lady's guide to dining out alone.
Solo dining in NYC is hotter than ever -- here's how to own the town as a table for one
Calling one's sad loneliness "hotter than ever" doesn't make it so. And it sounds forced and desperate. "If someone won't validate me, then I'll validate myself!"
Jess Brohier is sitting alone at Brooklyn's Chez Alex -- and she couldn't be happier.
Sure, Jan.
While she does "dine with friends a lot," the 35-year-old photographer says having a solitary meal in a nice restaurant is a "form of self-care" for her.
"There's something really nice about being present and savoring food that you pay for as well as appreciating that you carved out time for yourself," Brohier told The Post.
"Sometimes I just want to have a nice time with myself," she explained.
You'll have a lot more of time by yourself over the next 50 years, I fear. Think of how empowering it will be!
And while she's the only one at her table, she's definitely not alone.
A new survey conducted by restaurant reservation app OpenTable found that more and more, people are proudly saying, "Table for one, please!"
Solo reservations increased 8% in the US this year and about 60% of those surveyed -- 68% for Gen Z and Millennials -- said they'd dined solo at a sit-down restaurant.
It's part of a growing trend for "me time," cited as the top reason diners eat by themselves, according to OpenTable.
Incels weren't credited as just enjoying "me time." They were stigmatized, otherized, pathologized, and demonized.
Why shouldn't these young leftwing spinsters be called femcels and similarly denigrated?
Sasha Davydova, 30, was doing just that when she went to Quality Meats in Midtown alone.
"I remember being at that breaking point where I was just like, I just want a steak. I don't care. I'm going to get dressed up and I'm going to go get my top steak. That's going to be my treat to myself. And so I did," the tattoo artist tells The Post.
"Solo dining really opens up the world to me -- to know I don't have to wait for anyone else to do things."
While it's a nationwide trend to fly solo while dining, it's even more widespread in Gotham.
No shit, peak female empowerment-by-abandonment is in New York City? I'd've never guessed!
New Yorkers dine solo more than the average American, Lightspeed reported to The Post, with just about half (49%) admitting they've snagged a table for one.
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"There's nothing more empowering than dining solo in New York," Michael Stillman, CEO and founder of Quality Branded, which operates Quality Meats, tells The Post. "You can do exactly what you want and don't have to negotiate your order with anyone else. You own every part of your experience."
I mean, we all tell ourselves sad little lies just to keep our morale up in the big, tough world.
Enjoy playing those Taylor Swift records all alone in your one-bedroom apartments.