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My two thoughts on this: 1. I bet a large portion of this phenomenon is related to the current US divorce laws (basically a woman with a child can divorce a hi
by omonra 11y ago
My two thoughts on this:
1. I bet a large portion of this phenomenon is related to the current US divorce laws (basically a woman with a child can divorce a high-income husband and claim a large portion of his income for child support / maintenance).
Therefore marrying people of your 'social circle' is a certain way to mitigate this effect (ie if your spouse is a high-level attorney rather than a secretary, you have a much lower risk of it happening to you).
2. Author kinda assumes the reader is an idiot in some places. For example: "As it becomes harder for many people to “marry up”.
Well, no. "People" never really married up. Women with looks had a chance to marry men of higher social standing. The reverse (man marrying a woman of higher social standing) was very much an exception.
So basically what this means is that men of today are not as interested in marrying women beneath their social status as they were in the past.
I guess that women's liberation had a lot to do with this phenomenon. If one is an intelligent woman, she can simply go to a good school and get a career - instead of her only choice in life being marriage to a rich man. So that actually sounds like a not terrible thing for such women.
- meric 11y agoThe reverse (man marrying a woman of higher social standing) was very much an exception. I'd argue against that. There's precedence in older wealthy women marrying younger man of lower social standing. Queen Victoria of the British Empire marrying Prince Albert is one example of a woman marrying a man of lower social standing (though they are of the same age). in Albert's own words, "I am very happy and contented; but the difficulty in filling my place with the proper dignity is that I am only the husband, not the master in the house." It may be uncomfortable for the man in question, but it has happened.
- webnrrd2k 11y agoI don't think that any one is saying it never happened, just that it's more of an exception,or a much rarer occurrence.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoThat's why it's an "exception" instead of an "impossibility."
- omonra 11y agoThank you for the quote - but I think you picked a rather peculiar example. Queen Victoria simply could not marry ANYBODY in the world of equal social standing - because by English law, whoever married the Queen would still only be a Prince of Wales. I think the only real example you can draw on would be aristocratic families who lost their fortune and had to marry off their offspring to a child of rich bourgeois. This way the two family combined pedigree and wealth - but they sort of came on equal footing due to the varying assets each brought to the table.
- webnrrd2k 11y agoAny one who's interested in the details "marrying up" with regards to male & female children, I'd strongly recommend reading The Red Queen. Omomra is right, though, women have, historically been able to marry up far easier than men.