Sunday, October 24, 2010

Woman Marries Herself

A Taiwanese woman is marrying herself.

Uninspired by the men she's met but facing social pressure to get married, the 30-year-old Taipei office worker will hold the reception next month in honor of just one person.

"Age thirty is a prime period for me. My work and experience are in good shape, but I haven't found a partner, so what can I do?" Chen said.

"It's not that I'm anti-marriage. I just hope that I can express a different idea within the bounds of a tradition," she added.
Her $5,675 wedding comes after online publicity that has netted 1,800 largely sympathetic comments.



The story notes that Taiwanese women are marrying less and later, as their economic status advances. This is female hypergamy at work.

Could the woman find a husband? Why certainly. It is hard to tell if the woman is grossly fat, but even fat women can get married. They simply have to compromise. The woman, like many, in Taiwan and all over the developed world, simply won't settle for the boring, beta male provider her mother and grandmother and great-grandmother married. Why? Because she feels she "deserves" a better class of guy.

No doubt, she had Alpha male attention, in her younger days, but obviously was not pretty enough to hold him. This is the tragedy of the modern world. Women don't find out, until far too late to do anyone any good at all, that most of them can certainly have sex with exciting, dominant, Alpha men, as long as they are young and relatively attractive. But nearly all of them will lack the extraordinary beauty to make one their husband. And even then, they'll have to share said Alpha male with any number of other women, many far less attractive than themselves. Ask Sandra Bullock, or Elin Nordgren.

Thus women marrying themselves. A party all for them! Groom not even required. Yes this is "Muriel's Wedding" with Toni Collete and the music of ABBA.

As sad, and pathetic, as the X-boxen obsessed slackers on the couch, gaming away, this bit of news is every bit as sad. Consumer society breeds unrealistic expectations about life that prevent many from actually living it. The woman in question would have been better advised to have found a slightly older man, mature enough not to be hormonally crazed, and stable, after careful vetting and finding compatibility. Not searching for the perfect guy till the opportunity to find a good enough one slips away.

As always, the perfect is the enemy of the good. A lesson sadly her mother was not able to teach her.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is perhaps the ultimate in female solipsism. Me, me, me, it's all about me! Nobody can meet my needs better than me! I can have a day of me without even the trivial distraction of a groom!

Now, where did I put that turkey basting syringe...

Samson said...

Don't miss the relevance to the gay "marriage" debate, either. Once marriage can mean more than one thing, it can quickly mean anything.

DJ said...

This could all go horribly wrong. What if the marriage breaks up and she files a false DV report? Will she have to stay 150 yards from herself?

Kendama said...

What if the marriage breaks up and she files a false DV report? Will she have to stay 150 yards from herself?

If it goes THAT far, she better know the Shadow Clone Technique!

Anonymous said...

Kinda fitting if you think about it, since most women see the groom at a wedding as just an accessory anyway, like the flowers and the wedding cake.

Anonymous said...

This story actually makes sense - women want to get married, not be married. Marrying "yourself" (I wonder what the wedding night will be like?) gives the woman all the good bits of "getting" married, but without the irritating side effects of actually "being" married.

Of course, it doesn't make her look any less ridiculous; even western women would look at this and think "bizarre".

Anonymous said...

I think she has completly missed the point about the pressure from her family and friends to get married. They weren't looking forward to a pointless ceremony and a party where they get to bring gifts. They wanted grandchildren and the hope for her to experience a long, happy, and productive life.

*** ******** said...

"My work and experience are in good shape"
-this in one sentence explains that she DOES not understand men. she mistakenly assumes that men value in her the things she values in men.

Ping Jockey said...

I guess this is the ultimate for women who want to "Have it all...alone"!

Hell_Is_Like_Newark said...

As a wedding gift, someone should give her a pair of cats. That way she can start building up her collection of them.

sestamibi said...

And then again, there was Dennis Rodman . . .

Gunn said...

What happened to shame?

Why have none of her (presumably traditional) family told her what a stupid fool she is being?

Women like this are able to maintain their delusions because society as a whole has stopped holding them to any kind of standard of decency.

She is doing the world a favour however; at least no man will be unlucky enough to get her for a wife.

madmax said...

This is female hypergamy at work.

I don't get the hypergamy argument. The definition given is that women are attracted by men of "higher social value." But what the hell does that mean? Higher on the economic scale? Higher on the educational scale? Higher on the cultural scale? What frakin scale are we talking about.

I have a friend who is a middle class guy in his mid 20s. He is the son of a blue collar dad. He works as a bartender and is going to a mediocre college to get a worthless liberal arts degree. He's better than average looking and screws a lot of women. Fine. But how does he have "higher social value" than say some upper middle class software engineer with a masters degree from a leading university? The software engineer is a "nice guy" thus he doesn't attract today's girls; at least not in their 20s. The bartender is an asshat and thus today's airheads love him. But what does this have to do with hypergamy which is a concept borrowed from the mating habits of the higher animals?

To me the hypergamy argument explains nothing. Yes, "Game" seems to work. But I am not convinced that it works for the "scientific" reasons that guys like Roissey say it does. There are other things going on here and I bet alot of them are cultural.

Richard said...

She is already involved in a domestic dispute now too:

http://men-factor.blogspot.com/2010/10/woman-scheduled-to-marry-self-now.html

Anonymous said...

I watched a movie years ago about this very thing ,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0991164/plotsummary

Ok this doesnt appear to be an original concept noticing the movie came out over a couple years ago , the marriage can't be considered legal because you can't marry a relative that is first cousin or closer. In my personal opinion this doesn't make any sense at all yeah it made for a cute movie but in real life come on something on better left on the screen Sounds pretty conceited in my own personal opinion to spend several thousand dollars to Celebrate Herself, Look I got all this money and I'm single no wait I am married , but then she would have to cheat on herself if she found someone or wanted kids or something how could she ever forgive herself would she have a divorce ceremony first also and sue herself for her own possesions possibly mental anquish for any of the fights that she has with herself. Ok that Is my opinion I understand the concept behind it but save it for the movies - seems conceited beyond belief - guess its like they say you got to love yourself before you can love anyone else , maybe she should teach herself that she doesnt have to buy her own love or possibly check with a health care professional abot borderline personality and split identity disorders, just my own opinion and wondering how long this marriage is going to last and I cringe at the thought of even using the word marriage it was a commitment ceremony it wasn't even a marriage as there has to be more than one person involved to join two people to become one. Commitment ceremonies are not new either people have been doing that for years also , so I must wonder why is this such big news anyway and where did she get the marriage liscense from ?