Arranged marriages in America: Real or Spoof?

[TalkingDog]

http://www.marryourdaughter.com/

Arranged marriages based on biblical principals.

I can't find anything on the site to suggest it is satire. Well, other than the entire site.

This post isn't a poll per se, but I am concerned that the site is sincerely intent in it's mission. Anybody got an opinion?



My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. It's satire.

Check snopes.

[TalkingDog]

4. Typed it in wrong the first time. Marry My Daughter

Not marry our daughter....

Yeah, it's pretty bad when you have to ask.....


My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[FreakinDJ]

2. Un-ruffle your feathers - its a bad joke

[Nikia]

3. I'm not sure about that site

When I was in college though, one of the magazines they carried was a Islam themed magazine. Included in it were personals written by parents for their son or daughter for an arranged marriage.

[LeftyMom]

6. There was an article here a few months back about arranging marriages in US muslim culture.

It focused on big conventions where the marriageable young adults and their mothers go, and basically mom and kid speed date and network, but the mothers run the show and looking for a girl or boy with a good mother as much as a good girl or boy, and the kids are there mostly as a merchandise sample.

There's also a tendency for for the young men's families to arrange for a girl from the home country, since they're seen as more pious and traditional, but the downside is that they lack earning capacity.

Interesting article, if anybody remembers enough keywords to dig up a link it's worth a read.

[LeftyMom]

5. Fundies do arrange their kids' marriages

They call it courtship, but the idea is really that the young man of the right age finds a fundie dad looking to unload a daughter and convinces him that he's the right sort of fundie, capable of supporting the girl and willing to say all the correct gawdly buzzwords. Once Dad approves, fundiespawn daughter gets let in on the plan, depending on the strictness of sect and family they may go out on a few dates or may never hold hands or be alone together, she may have some say (hint to fundie girls: couch your diapproval in theological terms, or tell Daddy that the guy tried to sample the goods early if you're really desperate) or none at all.

Of course, other subcultures in America do much the same- a girl on my HS debate team went to every event but never competed because it was the only way to see her adorably sweet, bookish bf. Her very traditional vietnamese family had arranged a match for her back before she was toilet trained and wasn't going to let a little thing like their silly americanized daughter loving somebody else cause them the social stigma of going back on their word. Even though the bf was a prince of a guy, a great student, also from a very traditional vietnamese family and would himself no doubt have made an excellent match for the girl. I don't know what ever became of them- she graduated after me- but I like to hope that after graduation they took off for South Lake and did a quickie wedding so she wouldn't have to marry the virtual stranger.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. When I worked with street kids in Portland, a sweet young girl from

one of the Southeast Asian tribes (not Hmong--one of the others, but I forget which one) showed up as a runaway.

When the staff talked to her, they found out that she was 13 and had run away because her parents wanted her to marry a man in his twenties, just like in the Old Country.

She showed up at the center only a couple of times. Apparently the staff convinced her parents that marrying off a 13-year-old was illegal and in general not a good idea.

When I first went to Japan 30 years ago, about 1/3 of all marriages were still arranged. This didn't mean forced, although it was considered shameful for a woman to be unmarried after age 25 or a man to be unmarried after age 30. A person who was approaching the magic number without any prospects would often seek out a matchmaker.

The matchmaker would present portfolios of possible matches, and the potential couple would meet with their parents in tow. If the parents approved, the couple would go out on a couple of dates, but the decision to marry or not would be made fairly quickly.

A person who turned down too many prospects risked disapproval from the neighbors (and Japanese neighbors are quite gossipy).

At the time, the Matchmakers' Association ran ads on TV: A couple leaving for their honeymoon, and one of the groom's friends going up to him and saying, "They'll find someone good for me, too."

Have things ever changed! More and more women are choosing to remain single, much to the dismay of their parents and of Japanese men and of the Japanese government, which is worried that the country's birth rate is below replacement level.