Writing about Amish women and singlehood

ABSTRACT

This manuscript explores the various ways that Amish society negotiates singlehood for women. Through a narrative analysis of a decade of writings by singles and about singlehood in an Amish youth magazine, the writings show similarities to and differences from mainstream society’s and other Christian approaches to singlehood. The manuscript argues that even in a marriage- and procreation-oriented religious society, singlehood is complex, being both lamented as non-normative and valued as an example of submission of individual liberation. This complexity unveils the diversity that surrounds gender and marriage in a society often thought of as monolithic by outsiders.

KEYWORDS:

• Amish
• young adult literature
• singlehood
• marriage

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Karen Johnson-Weiner for comments on an earlier draft. This research was supported by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Faculty Sabbatical Leave Program and the Kreider Fellowship through the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the author.

Notes

1. This is not to assume that adolescents are simply consumers of media. They are also agentive in the process of negotiating gender identities through literature that targets them (Click, Aubrey, and Behm-Morawitz 2010, 11).

2. The only story written about single men appeared in a related publication Family Life in April 2008 (Family Life is geared towards the whole family as readers). In ‘The Lonely Bachelor’, the author acknowledges that Amish society is accepting, yet there is a stigma attached to single men, often because they are seen as being too choosy or have ‘an abnormal love for hunting or fishing’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Kreider Fellowship at Elizabethtown College; University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Faculty Sabbatical Leave Program.