Am I The Only Holdout on Marriage Proposals?

[deirdre]

Several of my friends have, over the months this came out, held this up as a cool marriage proposal.

I have to admit, I think it’s creepy.

Why?

Because, in my book, any marriage proposal designed to “sell” the woman into the thing, especially one that leverages a celebrity (e.g., Patrick Stewart) or family (as in the earlier proposal) is not a proposal between peers. It is potential husband + club + possibility of public shaming, especially given the prevalence of these things on YouTube.

Now, true, it’s always possible that the couple arranged the whole thing to make it look like a surprise. If so, go them.

It’s also true that Rick proposed to me in front of others on a mailing list, but it probably wasn’t generally known that Rick asked me if that would be okay first.

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.