love and marriage

 

Welcome to the latest installment of Ms. Opinionated, in which readers have questions about the pesky day-to-day choices we all face, and I give advice about how to make ones that (hopefully) best reflect our shared commitment to feminist values—as well as advice on what to do when they don't.

Dear Ms. Opinionated,

Welcome to "Ms. Opinionated," Bitch's new advice column, in which readers have questions about the pesky day-to-day choices we all face, and I give advice about how to makes ones that (hopefully) best reflect our shared commitment to feminist values—as well as advice on what to do when they don't.

First up: What do you do with a boyfriend who pooh-poohs your commitment to feminism because "men and women are totally equal now"?

Have you been wondering what would be the perfect metaphor for being single in your forties? Well now, just in time for Valentine's Day, Lori Gottlieb and her godsend of a new book (Marry Him: a case for settling for Mr. Good Enough) have answered it: it's like irresponsibly drinking before driving, and then causing serious bodily harm to yourself or someone else in a horrific accident. No seriously:

In January, New Jersey-based business executive Neenah Picket, 43, rang in the New Year with a resolution: She would find a husband in 52 weeks with the help of six of her closest friends...and pretty much anyone who stops by her website, 52Weeks2FindHim.com. Now that much of the media hoopla around Neenah's experiment has died down, I thought I'd check in and see if she's found Him...or at the very least, if the trolls on her discussion board have stopped giving her unsolicited diet and exercise tips, calling her boring, and insulting her hairdo.

It’s enirely too late on a Friday afternoon to get all riled up about this article, but shit, it really went there. In a nutshell: Lori Gottlieb believes that women should settle for men they don’t really want to marry, because being married is better than not being married. The Atlantic Monthly, meanwhile, believes that this kind of crap is something that people actually want to read. Both of these things are, inherently, problematic.