Single white female, single white male
Part of a code system describing the writer or the person sought: marital status (S single, D divorced, M married), race or ethnicity (W white, B black), sometimes orientation (G gay, Bi bisexual), and gender (M or F).
| Type | Modern shorthand and terms |
|---|---|
| Category | Identity code |
| Usage | dated |
| Stands for | Single white female, single white male |
| Earliest example we have found | 1981 (SWM, WF, and a class called SWM seeks SWF), The Washington Post, April 24, 1981 (not claimed as the first use) |
Codes like SWF, DWM, and GWM filled print personals by the early 1980s: a 1981 Washington Post article on writing singles ads quotes ads opening SWM and describes a class called SWM seeks SWF, when papers charged by the word. The Smithsonian's history of personal ads quotes a 1980s Village Voice ad written in them, and notes that by 1984 Seattle Weekly had banned abbreviations altogether. The phrase reached popular culture through John Lutz's 1990 novel SWF Seeks Same and the 1992 film Single White Female. The pattern produced a whole grid: SBF, DWM, SJM, SWPF (single white professional female), MWM (married, or sometimes mature, white male), and WASP. The Smithsonian quotes the writer Sharyn Wolf calling it initialitis.
Sources: Smithsonian, Advertising for Love.
The codes have mostly faded with print. Modern apps ask for the same information in structured fields, and many drop categories like race entirely.
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How this fits into 170 years of personal ad shorthand: From Object Matrimony to LTR: How Personal Ads Learned to Talk in Code.
All dictionary entries · The Personals Archive · How to write a personal ad
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