Friday, October 17, 2008

"Arranged" Marriage? Oh, my.

Mad Minerva points to an article/book review about a new trend for westerners as the easy way out of the big fat post modern matching mess:

One group of women she spoke to, who had had arranged marriages, were alpha-type New Yorkers in their late thirties and she noticed too that they didn't look to their partners so much for their happiness. “In Western culture there's an obligation for your partner to provide all your social and emotional needs,” she says. “In the landscape of arranged marriage there is an extended group that takes the pressure off this one man being able to provide everything.”

First of all, there is no such thing as "Western culture". And second of all, this whole article made me cringe. What a  "Sex and the city" BS. But a good example for multicultural cherry picking.

A marriage arranged and supervised by an ethnic auntie brigade? Good idea, especially in terms of "be fertile and multiply".

A marriage arranged by a MoDo columns loving East Coast psychiatrist turned matchmaker supervised by a bunch of friends who know all seasons of "Friends" and "Seinfeld" by heart? C'mon on, now!

A marriage arranged by your Chinese boss? A mind-blowing, suicidal tendencies triggering experience. You betcha. (Fortunately, she didn't succeed. And I'm still alive.)

3 comments:

Kevin Feasel said...

Next on the list is suttee: how come I have to die but my spouse doesn't? I'll hold back the "people today are a bunch of spoiled, selfish brats" spiel, but well, people today are a bunch of spoiled, selfish brats...

Marian said...

Hey Kevin,

welcome to my blog! Feel at home, but behave climate friendly.

I read the other day that british undertakers are worrying about the solvency of their customers. They wouldn't like this suttee thing, would they?

Kevin Feasel said...

They may not be solvent, but at least our customers are soluble!

No, I suppose that isn't a great thing either...