Forum / 'Single Bars, Single Women,' Dir. Henry Winer, 1984, Television Movie, ABC

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  Chris Okum

  Apr 27, 10:24pm

  According to this television movie, there's nothing more pathetic than a single woman sitting at a bar in a night club waiting for a man to buy her a drink and take her home. This, says this television movie, is what the sexual revolution hath wrought on small-town America: the atomization of a community; the loneliness of casual sex; the destruction of the nuclear family; customized vans where a woman can't escape from the possibility of sexual assault; and the loss of faith for men of the cloth. 'Single Bars, Single Women' stars a cavalcade of early 80s 'stars' (Christine Lahti, Tony Danza, Mare Winningham, Shelly Hack, Paul Michael Glaser), and on the surface it seems like nothing more than another basic one-night stand American rondelet. But underneath the surface is a live current of Moral Majority sermonizing. This is the kind of movie made by well-funded rapture fiends who've discovered the temporary joys of sex toys and downers, who decided to swing for the hell of it, and then became disillusioned and vengeful when they looked over and saw their wives having too good a time with a man who may or may not have been Meadowlark Lemon. For there is nothing more terrifying to conservative men than the idea of women having sexual agency. Actually, there's nothing more terrifying to ALL men. A movie like this, which was made in 1984, is only relevant now because these issues are always relevant, and so in a way 'Single Bars, Single Women' is that rarest of things: a timeless movie, despite its low production values, despite its facile script, despite its sitcom-level acting (with the exception of Lahti, who proved once again that she could have been one of the great actresses of her generation but for the fact that there wasn't a single leading man save Eastwood who was physically bigger than her), despite its vulgar equivocation with night clubs as Dens of Satanic Majesty. Both of my parents were single and ready to mingle during the present tense of this movie, and so I'm always fascinated to get a look at what may have been their arena of combat. My dad had a great time at these places. He fell in love, met two or three wives, and kept himself busy instead of letting the daily and nightly grind of raising three children get him down. And my mother? I never saw her express and sadness about her plight as a single woman. She wouldn't capitulate. No, never. She may have been destroyed, but if she was, she would've dragged the world with her, a world in flames. I speak in the voice of destruction for those who can't.

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