New York magazine sex columnist Amy Sohn wasn't nearly so hesitant in her implication that maybe the way to the female voter's heart was through her libido. By e-mail, Sohn suggested that John Kerry "should trot out his stepsons at benefits because they're hot and eligible." And those benefits? Sohn said they shouldn't be $1,000-a-head affairs, but "$250-a-head appetizer hours because single women don't have that kind of money and live on finger food anyway." That's all fine for the campaign, but how would Sohn lure women into the actual voting booths? "[Kerry] should hire really good-looking men to stand outside the polling places in high-single areas," she said. "All the men should have sideburns and good breath. Any time they see a harried woman walking by in unreasonably high heels, they hand her a flier that says Choose, Then Booze." Sohn also echoed Eleanor Smeal, who says that Election Day should be a work-holiday so as not to penalize wage-earners for taking time to vote, in her assertion that we need to completely re-envision what the day means. "Who has plans for a Tuesday night?" said Sohn, who apparently already thinks of voting as an evening activity. "When I was single I always voted because I never had a date and it was one way to make the evening go by more quickly. Plus, it takes less time to vote than to masturbate, and the feeling of satisfaction lasts longer."

Over at Red Dress Ink, the publishing imprint dedicated to the "chick lit" genre of fiction -- written for, by, and about young single women -- editor Margaret Marbury said, "If they would catch the right tone and the attitude then a modern woman would prick up her ears. But she's not going to pay attention to these dull, boring, almost vindictive political smears." Marbury wondered why political campaigns don't produce "cute and witty female-toned media campaigns." But before we start envisioning John Kerry waving from a podium, bunches of red balloons floating behind him and that "More more more ..." song playing in the background, Marbury said, "they'd need to do it in a way where a man wouldn't say 'Oh, that was a chick commercial." Oh. Boo.

What everyone agreed on is that there is nothing cute or witty about the fact that single women seem to have gotten themselves into a vicious cycle. They don't vote because they don't feel that their needs, tastes, realities, or concerns, are being addressed by candidates. But even as their numbers and potential political clout grows, the unwillingness to cast a vote leaves them even more underrepresented. And the very vulnerabilities that alienate them from the electorate -- their economic challenges, taxing professional demands, inability to buy property, inability to qualify for tax breaks afforded to families -- go unchecked. Monica Crowley, the conservative host of WABC's "The Monica Crowley Show" and an analyst for Fox News, said in an e-mail that single women "need to feel that policies will be in place for their economic and physical safety. That means they should be courted with messages and policies on taxes, health care/insurance, job opportunities, and national security." But if they're not voting, their growing population is not getting represented, government will pay less attention to them, and they will feel increasingly divorced from their own leadership.

And they will be shirking a very serious responsibility. Just ask the 76-year-old sex therapist Ruth Westheimer. "For me, as an immigrant to this country, coming out of Nazi Germany, voting is an obligation," said Westheimer, who is currently co-teaching a class at Yale and has a new book, "Musically Speaking: A Life Through Song." Westheimer escaped Germany for Switzerland with a group of children in 1939, where she lived in an orphanage, then in Palestine, then in Paris.

"I came to this great country in 1956," said Westheimer, "And as soon as I became a citizen, and ever since, I have not missed one voting." But Westheimer was direct in her message to the invisible hordes of abstaining women: "Don't be stupid," she said. "Go and vote at maybe a lunch hour where there are the most eligible men hanging around." There, she said, single voters might "meet like-minded people who take their civic responsibilities seriously." But, she cautioned, "Don't go voting half-naked. Be dressed seductively but nicely. Business wear with maybe a nice loud scarf. And if you walk around in sneakers all day like I do, just for this half-hour, put on a nice heel."

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