Girls and Marriage

It is interesting to see on TV shows or movies how the girl is taken away so a suitable man can be chosen for her, or the parents just set up marriages for their daughters. I have seen this in two things just recently. I am a huge fan of Gilmore Girls. I love the tv show, but have just recently become a fan, as in the last two years. I have seen all the seasons a number of times now, and since recently I never realized what it would be like to be one of the friends of one of the main characters. One of the main characters, Rory, has a friend, Lane, who is Korean, and Lane's mother is always setting her up on dates for possibly future boyfriends/husbands. Lane is a good daughter, and respects her mother's Korean ways, but wants to be able to pick her own boyfriends and be in a rock band, which would be unacceptable, so she hides who she really wants to be. She had no choice on who she could be with, because her future boyfriend/husband had to be a "future doctor. " It was really stressed in her family that she would only be with one guy for the rest of her life. Her mother was only with her father, and waited to have sex until marriage, and even then it was said she didn't do it much after that. I know that this is a different culture, but it was interesting to me that this TV show showed this, in a time where times have changed. I am glad they did because it is another perspective that girls can see. I know a lot of girls or women can't imagine what it is like to be forced to marry someone, because (especially now) women are allowed to be with whomever they want. They can choose whether they want to be married, or just focus on themselves. A movie that goes along with this is Shrek. I know it is a young children's movie, but I was watching it while babysitting and it showed how the girl has to wait for her Prince Charming to come and rescue her, and that will be the one whom she will marry. And so this girl has to wait in a building away from everyone else, with a dragon guarding her, so that her Prince Charming will come and save her. It seems in a way that girls should only wait for that one guy that they will spend the rest of their lives with. And it is true that girls, wait for that one guy, but they must have experiences before they meet that guy. It is good to have other relationships to know what you like and what you don't like. I know that arranged marriages were common years ago, but I couldn't imagine being put with a man, who I don't like, and he might not like me either. We would have to get married and act like we like each other, and I am sure after a while, we would get to like each other more but that initial shock of having to be with someone with the rest of your life that you have no connection with is scary. So I just thought I would point out those observations I had on those two TV shows/movies. And how we can see that it is still taught that girls should wait for that one person to be with for the rest of their lives, even though it seems that doing that is getting more rare, at least in the United States.