Last fall a producer for the Ricki Lake Show invited Beth Wade to appear on a program about women who marry for money. The producer had seen the northwest-sider’s Bitter Barren Spinster Club Web site–a saucy send-up for confirmed bachelorettes that “lets us know that we are not alone, adrift in a ‘singles-limbo’ full of kitty litter, Diet Pepsi and frozen Lean Cuisine meals”–and wanted her to represent an opposing viewpoint.
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“I feel like I sold my soul for a free trip to New York,” says the 31-year-old Wade, who works part-time as an Avon lady, drives a 1973 Honda 350 motorcycle, and lives with two cats, two dogs, several fish, and a parakeet in her parents’ basement. “I couldn’t believe those women were for real, saying they only date guys who make $200,000 a year. I said something about how those women do a disservice to other women, because men think we’re all like that. I said we should be self-sufficient. That men should be the icing on the cake–not the cake.”
It’s all tongue-in-cheek, she says, but “when I say I don’t want to get married and I don’t want to have kids, people say, ‘You’re just saying that because you haven’t met the right guy yet. You’ll want to have kids.’ When I was 23 I wanted to have kids. I was young and stupid. Since I’m older that desire has become less and less. Children are messy and noisy and expensive and time-consuming. They would really cut down on my ‘me’ time.”
