Why no one wants to get (or stay) married

Of their reasons for not being married, 95 percent of the singletons claimed they haven’t found someone with the qualities that they’re looking for in a spouse. Have we created a culture of impossibly high romantic expectations? Or are other forces keeping all those knots untied?

In the landmark PBS series and best-selling book The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell discusses the spiritual aspect of marriage that our modern society has all but forgotten.

"When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you’re sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship," he says. "Marriage is not a simple love affair, it’s an ordeal, and the ordeal is the sacrifice of ego to a relationship in which two have become one."

Yet we seldom promote, or even discuss, the idea of sacrifice in our contemporary American culture. Our modern myths, the stories and messages that inundate us from film, television, and advertising, present both unrealistic images of marriage, and messages that work against the ideal of marriage as a spiritual union.

My college students are especially drawn to Campbell’s ideas on marriage, and I regularly poll them on what they’ve been raised to do and believe. The young women say they’re in college to get a good education to get a good career so they won’t need to rely on anyone (a man) for their financial security.

Many of them are surprised to learn that 50 years ago, the main reason that many women went to college was to meet a husband. Once married, they became full-time wives and mothers, dependent on their husbands for financial support.

We all know that this didn’t always work out, so it’s both a practical and admirable goal for women to aim for financial independence. At the same time, 78 percent of never married women surveyed in 2014 stated that finding a spouse with a steady job was "very important" to them — proving that old ideas die hard.

Despite their goals of financial independence, the young women in my classes unanimously admit that they’ve been raised since childhood to fantasize about their wedding day as "the most important day of their life." Bridal themed toys are marketed to girls from age 3 on up, and for nearly 80 years, Disney films have promoted the idea that finding your prince and getting married equals living "happily ever after."

Further stoking the coals of this fairy tale wedding fetish is the wildly popular Disney Princesses line of dolls, toys and costumes, many of which feature the pantheon of Disney heroines in bridal gowns – including those who are never shown getting married in the original films.

Even a modern Disney heroine like Mulan, whose primary goal is not to look for love but to defend her country, is now depicted as a bridal icon. The fiery Merida in Brave spends the entire movie resisting her parents’ attempts to marry her off. Yet sites including girlgames.com now feature a "Merida Wedding Dress Up Game."

read more: http://indulgy.com/post/3xHuxgRxt2/dresses-here

This blog aims at sharing some information about wedding dresses and dresses.