It may be a hard pill for some people to swallow, but there’s one thing we all need to accept when it comes to dating: sometimes, women actually want to be single.

We live in a society where single women are still treated with pity. The idea that any woman would choose to be single – and, shock horror, actually enjoy it – is one many people seem unable to grasp. Of course, they assume, any woman who is still single must be on the lookout for a man – that singledom is the result of their failure to secure a partner, and that they must be desperately, hopelessly miserable. So goes the messaging of a society designed – and biased towards – couples.

Emily Atack just nailed the big problem with the way society talks about single women