Ringing in the Single Life

Single and proud of it... here's a ring just for you.

By Anna David

If you listen to some people out there, the single most important goal for any woman should be to land a man. Bridget Jones introduced us to the smug marrieds but the fact is that music, articles and -- let's face it -- your mother never seem to let up about the fact that your life could be oh-so-complete if only you could find a man to love you.

Let Singelringen ("single ring" in Swedish) come to the rescue. A turquoise and silver unisex ring that was first launched in the spring of 2005 by Johan Wahlback, a 37-year old Swede who got fed up with everyone nudging him to get hitched, Singelringen -- for a mere $69 -- both tells the world at large that you're available and restores that self-esteem that's been plummeting ever since the last time someone grilled you about why you're still single.

"You wear it to remind yourself that you're already complete," says Linda Sherman, the North American representative for the ring (which has already exploded not only in Scandinavia but also in Japan and Brazil). "Women today don't need a man to justify their existence."

According to Sherman, the time has come for single people to hold their heads (and fingers) up proudly; as she notes, after all, the way writers cover dating today is quite different from the way it used to be. "It was always about how to get a man," Sherman notes of the previous decade, "whereas the new writing is about how you have to love yourself before you can love someone else." (Sherman cites Bachelorette Jen Schefft's book, Better Single Than Sorry, as an example of this trend.)

Of course, like all things trendy, Singelringen has attracted attention from the Hollywood community. Jennifer Love Hewitt nabbed one for her mother, but TomKat brought the whole thing mainstream when Katie Holmes supposedly started wearing one and TMZ wrote about it.

The ring is supposed to be worn on the right hand or around the neck so as not to confuse proud singles from their married sisterhood. Because, despite the crescent shape cut into the ring that's meant to indicate whether or not you're open to connecting with others, Sherman cautions that most people who see something on that tell-tale finger simply imagine it's a unique wedding ring. "I tested it out at a bar myself," Sherman says, "and in the dim light, everyone just assumed I was married." (She is, by the way, but she was single for 20 years and definitely "identifies" with her single customers.)

Yet married-or-not confusion can ultimately bring about a connection. "It's an unusual enough piece that it can definitely lead to an interesting conversation," she explains. "Someone is bound to say, 'What's that?' when they see it. And then you can explain, 'It means I'm available,' which is a great way to put yourself out there."