So What If Ariel Winter Is Single?

The red carpet of any award ceremony is typically a bastion of hilarious and awkward moments, but sometimes you also get those moments that are kind of offensive. That was the case when Jason Kennedy asked Ariel Winter why she was single. In and of itself, that's a fairly innocuous (though annoying) question that pretty much every woman has to hear from friends, relatives, and within a mile of any given family reunion. However, it was the way that Kennedy asked the question that made it particularly offensive to me. "'Single AF' was your latest tweet that I saw," he said. "That means you don't have a date tonight? What's the problem?" What is the problem? Why is it a problem for Winter to not have a romantic date?

As she pointed out, she did have a date — she had brought one of her best friends to the ceremony. Though she decided not to comment on the implication that it was a problem for her to be "single AF," I want to comment on that because, seriously, welcome to the stigma hanging over my whole life. The idea that being single AF is a bad thing — that being single at all is a bad thing — is an idea deeply ingrained in our society that we seriously need to get rid of. Women in particular seem to have more of a stigma attached to their single lives than men do, to the point that you can find several articles on the internet that will give you some amazing comebacks to the question that you will hear all the time. All the time, guys.

So, it's not really surprising to me that Winter can't joke about being single without someone asking her what the problem is that's keeping her from getting a boyfriend. But it is really disappointing that she should have to deal with something like that on the red carpet of an awards show, especially considering the fact that she's only 18-years-old. That seems a little young to me to have to justify being single to someone else, let alone having to justify why you don't have a date other than your best friend. It's annoying at any age, but Winter's just a teenager. The question of why she's single shouldn't be a question she should have to deal with at all.

I loved the part of her interview where she talked about how disappointed she was about having to defer college for a year, and how she was still determined to become an attorney even despite her success as an actress. That was incredibly inspirational. That the moment had to be a little tarnished by the implication that her being single is an issue, however, took away from that just a little bit.

Hopefully, Winter gets to go home with an Emmy so that her night doesn't end on this note. And, hopefully, Winter is able to continue to joke about being "single AF" without having to answer for why that is. Because it's not a problem to be single. Sometimes, it's even a relief.