This subscription box for single women is everything that's wrong with tech bro culture
These days, there are subscription boxes for just about everything. You can get a box of treats during your period, wine when you're feeling #thirsty, and even DIY craft projects to keep you busy.
Subscription boxes are clearly out of control, but the latest entry into the lineup feels exceptionally egregious. SinglesSwag is a subscription service aimed exclusively at "fun and fabulous single women." It encapsulates everything worth criticizing about tech bro culture: It's a shameless money-making gambit by a founder who doesn't know anything about his customers, who maybe thought "Subscription boxes are so hot right now! Let's figure out someone we can convince to buy them! How about some sad single ladies?"
Because obviously single women are in need of treats to cheer them up about their pitiful excuses for lives, amirite?
Each month, subscribers receive a white box emblazoned with the words #loveyourself. Inside the box, you'll find "fun, trending fashion accessories," artisanal snacks and treats, as well as "books, and other surprises!" "We love making single women look and feel beautiful while empowering and inspiring them," reads the company's mission statement on its website. Of course, this box-shaped empowerment comes at a price. Subscription plans cost $24.99 per month for a small box, and $39.99 for a large box, and can be shipped worldwide. As a single woman entirely happy with my lot in life, I wholeheartedly object to being identified homogenous member of a target market in need of empowerment. But, in the eyes of SinglesSwag's founder -- who is notably not a single woman, but a 30-something man named Jonathan Beskin -- I have been identified as a consumer who is sad and in need of products to make me feel better. You don't need to look further than SinglesSwag's Instagram posts to see their empowerment marketing strategy. They use hashtags like #selfloveisthebestlove and #loveyourdamnself and they post stupid quotes like "you can't spell disappointment without men". Gross. So, what do these "empowering" products look like?" One glorious example of a SingleSwag box posted on the company's official Instagram boasts a pair of socks inscribed with the words "my mascara ran, I'm counting it as exercise", a bottle of "emergency stain rescue", bag full of chocolate rocky roads and a heart necklace.
Another box contains a foldable wine bag for "wine on the go" and a box full of biscuits; two things I would genuinely never buy in a shop. But, would anyone actively buy any of this stuff if it weren't delivered to them in a box? I certainly wouldn't. But, if single women are the target market du jour, who's next? Recently bereaved widows in need of some cheering up? People whose partners are seriously ill? These products don't make me feel better. They make me think "what the fuck?" These boxes don't strike me as empowering -- they strike me as a massive misconception of what single people want and need. Here's the thing, though. Single women don't need products to make them feel empowered or inspired. They already feel those things every single day. Send me a box of shit I actually need -- a new computer, some new boots for work, and a case to protect the iPhone I keep dropping.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
