As long as we live in a society with patriarchy as its foundation, women should not marry. Just now, the political climate is still somewhat liberal, but should the religious right and other conservatives, traditionalists, and so on, win its objectives, the marriage vows will become a prison for women.

When I was born, women were still “chattel” in all but name. When I married, we were still legally expected to ‘obey’ - and whatever money we earned belonged officially to the man of the house - who was the head of the house under the law. We have weakened those chains (and I’ve got STORIES) but for all we know, the liberal wind that blew through America in the 60s and 70s was a fluke - similar things have happened in the past.

Every woman should be prepared to support herself - and her children if she can afford them - until her retirement (which is daily being postponed by the government.)

AS UGG’s writings confirm, lots of men will always push for younger women and more beautiful women, and one’s value in their marketplace is doomed to decline. This is not to say that ALL men are so heartless and sexist, any more than it is true that ALL women are, well, for sale. But prostitution is the world’s oldest profession - and the correlate, the “John,” - who would prefer a bought beautiful object to a lifetime companion (subject to the ravages of time, just as he is) is just as historically persistent. Any animal or human without the means to support itself is headed for personal disaster.

A lot of women in my country behave in ways that degrade their image, such as expecting to be brought out for a free dinner (ie, date) and while the guy constantly hopes for a chance to bed them. Its sad to know this.

Worst is, the local women (who don’t meet the grade in terms of appearance and character) are usually sidelined. For the men with the funding and can’t find a local girl, its the foreign wife. The more this trend persist, the greater the resentment.

Already in my country, many of the local women find foreign women a threat. Foreign women (from places such as China and Vietnam) are easily better wives. At the end of the day, no man will want to marry a woman who can’t live with him. Marriage is a process involving a lot of time, money and effort. For the guy, he wouldn’t want to invest time, money and effort on women who are unlikely to be his lifetime partner.

If eventually all marriages are through buying of brides, its wouldn’t be surprising. Society brought it upon itself. Women groups in developed countries have to evaluate their role, as to whether they really want to create a tomorrow where women are so independent that they don’t pay much thought to marriage.