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Attention single girls:
I know this lonely older man out there. Blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, good family, getting his degree in nursing, goes to shiurim, does chesed. It breaks my heart. There’s nothing wrong with him, I promise, and he’s only 31!
There are so many amazing, hardworking, smart, handsome older single men out there, and they’re all perfectly normal. He’s slightly overweight but don’t listen to your father – once you get to know his personality, you won’t even notice it. Plus, I promise he won’t gain weight from pregnancy like you will.
It’s a big mitzva to get married. It’s an even bigger mitzva to marry someone who would otherwise live like a widower. None of the other girls want to date him, just because they prefer younger men.
Give him a chance. Just go on two dates. Your shadchan will be paid $2000 if the shidduch works out, and what do you have to lose? It’s not like you’re paying.
Who wants to date him?
(this is satire. for those who need to hear that.)
Wait at 31 you are an older man? Ouch.
Nursing is normal now?
If your point is that 22 year old girls are second class, I would like to disagree.
In the not so olden days boys got dowries. So they always had an advantage.
T613,
The boys know they’re at an advantage. Advertisements don’t add to that.
BTW, the latest round of kol korehs was about boys marrying when they’re younger, not about marrying older girls.
I need more explanation. I think you’re saying more than just that you don’t think the NASI style advertising is effective.
All I could think while reading this was, why doesn’t the ‘older’ guy marry an ‘older’ girl?
Popa, it seems she’s saying that it’s counterproductive.
When are we going to recognize that MOST of it seems to be counterproductive? The shidduch protocols are NOT working. There have never before been so many young people failing to find their zivugim. I say CAN the entire process and let our singles all loose in the wild (or fields)in their fancy clothes, and find each other. It worked in the old days on Tu B’Av.
You think you guys have a problem in the USA – you should see the matzuv in the UK/Europe;
Everyone knows so much about other families these days that shidduchim don’t even get started! At least you guys are dating!
When are we going to recognize that MOST of it seems to be counterproductive?
Oomis, when will you realize that you’re out of the loop, and that those who use the shidduch system have much better success than those who don’t? Sure, it’s not perfect, and that’s why there is such a commotion about tweaking it, but it’s far better than the hefkerus you suggest, not only tznius-wise, but success-wise.
TOrah
” I am involved with hidden people at risk, and women are great actresses.”
How can you figure out if a girl is really frum or just faking it (if she dresses frum and throws around frum words)?
For me it’s still very intuitive. So for now, I’ll attempt to class the arguments and hopefully I’ll be able to express some of what I feel along the way.
1. The class of arguments which protest basic human psychology:
“All men want the best women” – Any man with reasonable self-esteem wants the best woman he can get. Same goes for women with men. This is healthy.
“All men want the most beautiful woman” Hashem made them that way.
“Women are better than men”. On IQ measures, for example, female IQs tend towards the mean, while male IQs tend to fall at the higher and lower ends of the spectrum. Same goes for beauty measures and psychological disorders (this is my personal meta-analysis of all the studies I ever read)
In other words, it’s not that women are better than men, but women are more uniform than men. I believe this applies to frumkeit as well. In general, women are more likely to be close to average, and men to either be way above average or way below average. So it’s not that women are better than men but women are more average than men. And that’s fine.
“Girls only want long-term learners” Not exactly, normal women want a man who they can trust to lead them through life. They also want him to be respected and learned. If being in learning symbolizes that that’s what they are going to want.
“It’s all about the money” It’s shocking, but humans like money, even frum humans. And life is expensive. And if you have six kids and a regular salary and didn’t save up any money for each of their futures’, that was irresponsible.
“Mother-in-laws are picky” She wants the best woman for her beloved son, as she should.
“Shadchanim only want to work with the rich / powerful / beautiful / talented” So does everyone.
And finally, “older men want to marry younger women” this makes sense not only psychologically, but biologically!
2. The class of arguments that uses misleading statistics:
“There is a shidduch crisis”
Prove it.
– “age gap pyramid” need I explain more.
Men have always married younger women. There is nothing new under the sun and there is absolutely no data to support this.
– “many girls won’t get married”
Based on age gap pyramid in most cases. Who won’t get married? Only poor girls? When won’t will they get married? Between the ages of 18 and 21? How can we help them? By throwing money at shadchanim?
– “It’s a numbers game, just make yourself attractive to most people”.
Some say that 90% of people can marry the other 90% of people. This is not true. Looks, personal issues, background, and geography do limit the people we are going to date and marry. And that’s fine – if no one had hakpados, we’d have an even harder time deciding who to marry!
-“There are 100s of good women for every good man.”
I don’t know men. But I do know women. I am involved with hidden people at risk, and women are great actresses. There’s a lot of truth to the boys = garlic, girls = onions analogy. also see women are more average above.
3. The class of arguments that uses emotional blackmail.
– Frumkeit fear-mongering.
The message that the frummer a woman is, the harder it is to get married, unless your father is a Rosh Yeshiva, is a dangerous one. I’ve heard this propagated by friends of mine whose parents are extremely chashuv, and was not impressed.
– Women are desperate to get married.
Men and women, we are ALL supposed to serve Hashem, that’s our goal in life, and unlike men, we can do that without marriage. We just WANT to serve Hashem with everything he gave us, physically and spiritually, so we want to get married. But men NEED to get married. They have the mitzva of Pru Ur’vu.
– Segulos
Lotteries and Segulos are a tax on the numerically challenged. Obviously, if you don’t participate, you don’t really care about getting married.
– If you were perfect, you’d have found your bashert by now.
This argument attempts to convince girls that they’re not married because they didn’t go to BJJ or have a crooked nose or their father wears blue shirts. I won’t bother responding.
– Comparing single women to agunos
That’s a really horrible comparison. I don’t even have the words to argue with it, but really?? An aguna suffers tremendously. Being single is just NOT COMPARABLE.
Let’s just focus on doing what we should be doing, growing and serving Hashem. All the rest is commentary.
The OP was to show not that the system is messed up, but our attitude is messed up, and NASI only reflects this devaluation of women, which is not actually true as in practice, nearly everyone does get married eventually.
This is a great post. I don’t know how I missed it the first time around.
Women are desperate to get married.
Offen a Gemorah Al Pi Reish Lakish.
Women got married for different reasons. The primary reason today why women get married is for emotional support whereas in the past it was for financial and safety reasons.
Of course, Torah, there’s the immortal:
Hodel, oh Hodel, have I made a match for you! He’s handsome, he’s young! Alright, he’s 62. But he’s a nice man, a good catch, true? True. I promise you’ll be happy, and even if you’re not, there’s more to life than that— don’t ask me what.
Chava, I found him. Won’t you be a lucky bride! He’s handsome, he’s tall, that is from side to side. But he’s a nice man, a good catch, right? Right. You heard he has a temper. He’ll beat you every night, but only when he’s sober, so you’ll alright.
Did you think you’d get a prince?
Well I’ll find the best I can.
With no dowry, no money, no family background, be glad you got a man!
This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, unfortunately… whenever my mom’s annoyed about a shidduch that fell through, we all sing this, and either she laughs or she gets more annoyed.
Of course, Fiddler on the Roof :).
My point was the perceived mass hysteria to marry girls off by hook or by crook, however you can, don’t be picky.
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