Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon to hear: "You're not married? But you're almost twenty! You don't want to be an Old Maid, do you?" Maybe not quite as exaggerated, but women without a husband were often asked what was wrong with them, why they hadn't been able to land a man, how in the world they would ever have any semblance of a fulfilled life if they didn't get married?

In 1889, a magazine called "Tit-Bits" offered prizes to women who were dingle if they sent in the best answers to the question "Why Am I a Spinster?" A spinster was a woman who was unmarried and older than what it perceived as the "right" age to be married, or a woman who is unlikely to ever get married.


My personal favorite response from these spirited "spinsters" was:

"Because I do not care to enlarge my menagerie of pets, and I find the animal man less docile than a dog, less affectionate than a cat, and less amusing than a monkey." -From Miss Sparrow.

Check out all of the responses in the tweet above, and add your own. You don't have to be a victorian spinster to have a good reason not be me married!

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