Yay for women in Butte County! Chico State University- not so much

PHOTO: Garrett Jarboe, ChristiAna Lindberg, Liz Dryden and Lukas Valadez (from left) all of Oroville hang out on the Lake Oroville Dam in Oroville, Calif., Monday, Jan. 9, 2012. (Bill Husa/Chico Enterprise-Record)

Hello, I’m Jammie Karlman, entertainment editor of the Chico Enterprise-Record. My posts are all about things that, well, entertain me.

I am a happily married woman to a wonderful quality man, but my days (all right, years) of singledom are not that far behind me. I still remember the late-night laments over bad behavior, the endless rehashing of every nuance of interest a possible prospect may have or may not have shown, the wailing over an inevitable lonely-but-with-cats future.

So when I came across this article on Slate it piqued my interest. It also reinforced what every woman who has ever gone on a date already knows: There just aren’t enough good men out there. But what’s worse, because that’s the case, even the slobby losers can get some.

According to the article, “Sex Is Cheap: Why young men have the upper hand in bed, even when they’re failing in life” : “A significant number of young men are faring rather badly in life, and are thus skewing the dating pool. It’s not that the overall gender ratio in this country is out of whack; it’s that there’s a growing imbalance between the number of successful young women and successful young men. As a result, in many of the places where young people typically meet–on college campuses, in religious congregations, in cities that draw large numbers of twentysomethings–women outnumber men by significant margins.”

A look at Butte County’s statistics seems to give hope: The percentage of females in the county is 50.5%. Not bad, it’s about even. However, its status as a county that draws a large crowd of twentysomethings is doubtful. And a closer look at the communities in the county paint a different picture.

Chico State University reports 52% of Chico students are female; 48% male. Not looking good.
In Chico itself, for every 100 females there were 98.2 males. But it gets worse the younger you are: for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.8 males
In Oroville, the percentage also is unbalanced: males 48.9%, females, 51.1% .
But the place that wins for most lopsided ratios: Paradise, with 46.6% males, and 53.4% females.

With the supply of men so low, it seems inevitable that the competition for men will heighten, even for mouthbreathing, smelly couch fungus. Even if they’re married. Scheming will start, backstabbing begin, claws come out (as if this isn’t happening already).

But what is the alternative? Should women move to areas where there are more men? The problem I see with that option is that by moving to those areas, women also face limiting their chances at success. For example, a successful stockbroker on Wall Street will most likely not find the same opportunities in Alaska.

Should they make peace with the idea of being alone? Should they stop trying to succeed?

It seems to me a solution would be women collectively deciding not to date men who clearly don’t meet certain standards. A boycott on dating, if you will, until more men realize the benefits of being committed, socially conscious and financially responsible. Women should hold out for quality.

Plus, I hear there are a lot of nice cats available for adoption at the humane society.