When is a lady a old maid?

When she's over, say, 65 and still cleaning other people's houses. :-P

When is a lady a old maid?
From Muriel Spark's novel "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", Miss Brodie said somewhere to her girls, the Brodie set, that she had passed her prime. We don't know exactly how old Miss Brodie is, thus, from the novel's context an old maid might be in her 35+ years of age, more or less.
Reply:She can be delicate and kind and not an old maid.
Reply:When she starts acting like one - getting in everyone's business, telling people what to do, and complaining about how she should have done this that and the other.
Reply:A "lady" can't be an old maid. The worst a "lady" can be is a "class act" and there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a class act. Married, single, divorce, widowed or anything else, a class act is a good thing.





However a "woman" becomes an old maid the minute she thinks she is one. If you look, it is obvious. In fact is as obvious as a fisherman stowing his tackle. It can happen at 20 or not at all but it is the woman's call. She makes the decision.
Reply:When the lady says that she is, takes herself off the marriage market, and stops caring if she ever gets married or not.


My Grandmother thought I was an old maid at age 20, because I had no immediate plans for marriage. Now, at 53, I am an old maid. I have worked hard for what I have, and I intend to keep it.
Reply:That would be after the Post-"M", when a person chooses to live as one pleases, without the reproductive demands. Most


older men still see the 'old maid' as a loaded revolver that one


picks up carefully.
Reply:A lady becomes an old maid the minute she stops thinking of herself as an available woman. The moment she starts believing she will never get married, she probably never will. As long as it's more of an "I don't want to get married; I want to live like I'm 20 for the rest of my life" kind of decision, she's not an old maid no matter how old she is. If, however, the woman has more of an "I can never get married because no on likes me and no one ever will so I might as well not even try" kind of attitude, then she is old maid, the moment she starts thinking like that. It is possible that there is the "one man" who can turn a girl's attitude around to start dating him and possibly marrying him, thus making her no longer an old maid.
Reply:I would say if she is old and obviously not married!!!
Reply:When she's about 50 years or so and has never been married.
Reply:It depends on how she acts, some one could be 100 yearss old but be young at heart, or an overstressed 20 year old. it depends on the person.
Reply:WHEN YOU ARE 6 FEET UNDER AND NOT BREATHING
Reply:When her face is printed on a playing card. J/k.





In the small town where I grew up, anything over 20 was considered an old maid. Myself, I think if there is such a thing it would be someone older than 50. I don't think it's necessary to get married if you don't want to, though.
Reply:When she has past the average marrying age without even a prospect. A few decades ago, most couples married at around 20, so a lady of 23 who was not married and not engaged was considered an old maid.





Now, however, when most people are marrying later and the average age of a first-time marriage is about 25, a lady can reach her late 20s or even early 30s (depending on her social circle) before being perceived to be an old maid.





That perception is, of course, when your aunts, your Mom, all your friends start worrying:


"Will Miss Julia settle down?


"What is wrong with Miss Maggie that no man wants her?


"Is Miss Claire secretly a lesbian but is afraid to tell us?"





The perception is when everyone around you starts trying to fix-you-up with everything single and swinging, even men you wouldn't touch while wearing surgical gloves and a HazMat suit, possibly even 'that cute little lesbian who works at the Auto Zone."





Old maid is such an ugly phrase... I much prefer spinster.