For one jaded dater, surrendering control of her love life has a certain appeal.
At 31, I was already a world traveler and a world-class dater. I had lived at various times in two other countries, and as the proverbial "nice Jewish girl," had dated every type of unavailable man from Orthodox to Sikh to WASP. Everything ended badly and I was starting to consider myself an expert in cross-cultural heartbreak. The way some women carry pepper spray in their purse for protection, I carried a checklist of red-flag warning signs and dating requirements. By the time my sister Skyped me to see if I could join her for a yoga workshop in the hot beach town of Goa, I had decided to take a break from love.
Is a matchmaking mom really doing her son a favor?
Lots of people out there find their mothers quite meddlesome when it comes to dating. If stand-up comedy is to be believed, many of these people belong to a particular ethno-socio-religious group. Maybe a group that refers to smoked salmon as Lox. Sure, other cultures do this but outside of Russell Peters they don't have much in the way of a stand-up comedy voice. At any rate, it looks like a mom has decided to drag her son, grinning and bearing, into the world of Web 2.0 dating. PLUS Genetic Sexual Attraction in the Aimee Sword case.
How religion changes one woman's approach to finding love.
How much does your religion guide your attitudes towards the opposite sex and your decisions on your choice of a partner?
As a South Asian Muslim, my faith has shaped my attitudes towards men, dating and marriage from a young age. Since I was ten years old living in Westchester County, NY my mom has been drilling this mantra into my head, “You are a Muslim and you will not date.”
Arranged marriage in Vietnam has a sweet little out in the village of Khau Vai.
One of the most universal questions out there is, "Can you love two people at the same time?" In Vietnam, the answer is a resounding "maybe." The village of Khau Vai has a love market designed to let people in arranged marriages meet up with their past lovers once a year.
Is arranged marriage the next big relationship trend? And could it be right for you?
With the new CBS show Arranged Marriage scheduled for 2010, expect to hear much more about this age-old method for finding a spouse. But is it the next big relationship trend? And, more importantly, is it right for you?
The Unification Church will have some big changes in the coming years.
The Unification Church was founded by a Reverend Sun Myung Moon. As the church gained steam, he began matchmaking and setting up mass weddings. The matches found nice spouses for decent people and provided a means to create generations of multi-ethnic offspring. But the Rev. Moon is 90 and some changes are going to have to change. Or the world may end and we're making a big fuss about nothing.
Lawmakers are moving to protect foreign mail-order brides from sex traffickers in the U.S.
Every year hundreds of thousands of foreign women come to the U.S. to fulfill mail-order bride agreements but many are subject to abuses that go as far as sex slavery and murder.
Kenyan offers Hillary livestock dowry for her daughter.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Africa this week, fielding marriage proposals for her daughter, Chelsea. According to the Associated Press, a Kenyan man wrote to Bill Clinton in 2000 and offered him 40 goats and 20 cows for his only daughter's hand in marriage.
In Indian arranged marriages you wed first and grow to love your spouse second.
Liz Tuccillo, writer for Sex and the City and co-author of He's Just Not That Into You, asks why is the divorce rate so low in India? She finds out that Indians are taught that happiness is a state of mind. And if you've had an arranged marriage you wed first, and learn to love your husband over time, as you get to know him.
