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News & ArtsFriday, June 5, 2009
Hetero Today In Traditional Marriage
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 6:07 AM
Will all the brave defenders of traditional one-man/one-woman marriage out there—starting with the yapping heads on Fox News—have anything to say about this?
Fox is developing "I Married a Stranger," a matrimonial reality series in which brides-to-be don't meet their husbands until they exchange vows. The premise of the show is that a woman frustrated by the dating scene agrees to wed a man she's never met. While she prepares for her blind wedding, friends and family select a spouse from a pool of six eligible suitors offered by the show's producers. The men are eliminated one by one until only two candidates remain. Both finalists walk down the aisle, but only one makes it to the altar to reveal himself to his new wife."She never meets him until the actual moment when they say 'I do,'" a source close to the project said.
3
they won't care!!! they don't care about the hypocrisy that already exists with the outrageously high divorce rate and multiple marriages. they simply hate gays and do not want them to have the same rights as they do. nothing else matters to them.
5
Straight people will get a pass on this, and it will probably do well in the ratings too (especially in red states). Now if they made a show like this about gay marriage, then you'd hear an uproar about how gay people don't recognize the sanctity of marriage.
6
If anything, this is sounding more and more like traditional marriage, in which the bride doesn't even know the man (both personally or sexually) and the transaction is set up by the family of the woman.
Hah!
Hah!
7
Didn't Fox already do this show and call it "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire"? Because that didn't turn Darva Conger into a national joke or anything.
11
You never know. If they've been matched by general personality, beliefs, aspirations and compatibility, by people who aren't love-dazzled, it'll probably have a firmer foundation than a lot of marriages. But then, a functional partnership wouldn't make very interesting TV, would it? :(
12
@6 has the correct. This is more like the traditional arranged marriages of yore then anything that's practiced in the west today. I wonder whether the producers will be providing the dowry to the brides father or if the husband will still have that responsibility.
13
Ahh, arranged marriages sounds like inexpensive reality t.v.. Perhaps, Fox is trying to balance their programing so that they come across as a moderate station? Hypocrisy can be used as a means of moderating.
14
Great. Now just do the math with the article about reality tv suicides and you get to have
Traditional Arranged Marriages + Not-so-traditional divorce suicides
Whatta woild
Traditional Arranged Marriages + Not-so-traditional divorce suicides
Whatta woild
15
@12: Um, it is the father of the bride that provides the dowry to the groom and his family - literally paying them to take the female offspring off his hands.
I'm sure that the 'fees' that are paid for the participants could well be considered to be in the dowry ballpark.
I'm sure that the 'fees' that are paid for the participants could well be considered to be in the dowry ballpark.
16
Actually, arranged marriages were the norm until about a hundred years ago. Still are in some countries (like India). Very traditional, Fox!!
Will the wife be considered chattel on this show?
Will the wife be considered chattel on this show?
18
I'd be particularly interested in how the marriages on the show last. But I wager it's out of the scope of the show. My unresearched expectation is that they divorce inside weeks.
20
I do not know why you are so uptight, it is an arranged traditional marriage as the thousand that exist in the arab world china and India. Finally, you realized or we realized that you are not the beacon of freedom, enlightement or progression ( as in progressive thinking) and we are going to switich to danish, finish, spanish and german TV which are sensibly more progressive
than yours,Finally we are going to get freed from USA imperialist culture... hahaha
than yours,Finally we are going to get freed from USA imperialist culture... hahaha
21
Eh, Fox networks never fail to amaze me with the contradictions. You never hear the pundits denouncing the debauchery that occurs on, say, the Simpsons.
23
I'd apply, but I'm going to have to insist the bride's father cough up 100 pieces of silver, 20 acres, two cows (or oxen), one donkey, a dozen chickens, and a goat before I'll consider marrying his daughter.
Oh, and also, she has to be a virgin.
I mean, we are trying to uphold the sanctity of traditional marriage here, right?
Oh, and also, she has to be a virgin.
I mean, we are trying to uphold the sanctity of traditional marriage here, right?
26
So, Fox is the surrogate father giving away worthless woman to desperate men. Fox is like that matchmaker from that play... Dan?
What is the dowry?
What is the dowry?
27
i don't think it's blatant hypocrisy, i think it's fox's way of catapulting us back 150 fucking years so the men can rule, women can serve them, and us fags can get what's coming to us.
fuckers.
fuckers.
28
1) This isn't traditional arranged marriage. In that, the families usually know each other, or are only separated by a couple of friendships. The families know a lot about the individuals they are matching up. It's not a bunch of men that volunteered for a show like this and then were selected by the producers.
2) What kind of desperate woman agrees to this kind of show?! What kind of desperate man?
2) What kind of desperate woman agrees to this kind of show?! What kind of desperate man?
34
"The premise of the show is that a woman frustrated by the dating scene agrees to wed a man she's never met. "
AAHAHAHAHAHA! "Gee, casual dating is just too much for me. I can't seem to find someone I can stand for more than a couple dates, or who could stand me.
...
I know! I'll get fucking MARRIED to a complete stranger!"
Makes me want to start a show devoted to the collapse of all these relationships started in dating/marriage reality shows.
AAHAHAHAHAHA! "Gee, casual dating is just too much for me. I can't seem to find someone I can stand for more than a couple dates, or who could stand me.
...
I know! I'll get fucking MARRIED to a complete stranger!"
Makes me want to start a show devoted to the collapse of all these relationships started in dating/marriage reality shows.
35
Don't forget what the bible tells us in case she's not a virgin:
If any man takes a wife... and... found her not a virgin... the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she dies.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21
That would be a fun TV reality show in of itself! We could call it Virgin Hunt- or Get Me Out of Here- I'm Not a Virgin!, or something just as absurd...
If any man takes a wife... and... found her not a virgin... the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she dies.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21
That would be a fun TV reality show in of itself! We could call it Virgin Hunt- or Get Me Out of Here- I'm Not a Virgin!, or something just as absurd...
38
I love how this story/show premise is framed to make the woman look like the only desperate person: "a woman frustrated by the dating scene agrees to wed a man she's never met." Um, I'm pretty sure that if she's never met the man, then the man has never met her. Why isn't HE painted as a frustrated bachelor who is ready to just take the easy - and stupid - road?
39
But you know.......as long as it's a man/woman couple all is well with the world, right?!? What the heck???? How pathetic is this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
40
I have so many questions about this I don't know where to start. Two men start down the aisle, only one makes it to the altar. What HAPPENED to the OTHER?? Did Dick Cheney randomly shoot one? Did the priest get first dibbs?
Second of all, how are the panel of friends to judge sexual compatibility? Do they all get to take him for a test-fuck? Do they have a list of the bride's sexual wishes? "Sorry, your schlong is just what she likes, but we promised to find a pain-slut spank bottom".
Second of all, how are the panel of friends to judge sexual compatibility? Do they all get to take him for a test-fuck? Do they have a list of the bride's sexual wishes? "Sorry, your schlong is just what she likes, but we promised to find a pain-slut spank bottom".
42
@40: LOL. Your suggestions are priceless, if only...
The idea of the 'test-fuck' has possibilities, as well as the bride's friends grilling her about her sexual likes and dislikes.
The idea of the 'test-fuck' has possibilities, as well as the bride's friends grilling her about her sexual likes and dislikes.
43
Come on, Dan, Seth MacFarlene once said that Fox and Fox News are like two completely different worlds.
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