After choosing my most favorite bracelet from Tiffany and Co.
over the weekend, I grabbed my cell phone out of my Louis Vuitton
handbag and called one of my friends to discuss the most recent
tabloid trash I’ve read.
After choosing my most favorite bracelet from Tiffany and Co. over the weekend, I grabbed my cell phone out of my Louis Vuitton handbag and called one of my friends to discuss the most recent tabloid trash I’ve read.
Yes, I’m among the millions of people my age who have been affected by Hollywood. Just as the baby boomers had The Beatles, peace signs and love beads, my generation has its Paris Hilton, Christian Dior shades and Burberry apparel.
We pay ridiculous amounts of money for fashion, cars and music that MTV and magazines like US Weekly deem “cool.” But we don’t regret one cent of it, because those things give us some kind of false satisfaction.
Being a pop-culture junkie is something I have never been ashamed of, but recently, my favorite useless socialites and actress-musicians have let me down. Pushing the censors with their too-sexy clothing and landing in jail once in a while is always fun to watch, but lately the Hollywood hoodlums have been toying with one subject I hold dear: marriage.
Now I know I’m only a newlywed, having been married five months. I’m not going to preach on a soap box about love and what makes a good marriage, but I will say this: Watching people like Kimberly Stewart, who recently broke off her weeks-long engagement to a reality-TV star, only fuels the problem of marriage not being taken seriously in this country.
Stewart isn’t the only culprit. A slew of other female celebrities flash their engagement rings for publicity or engage three guys in one year to keep their names in the press.
The emphasis placed on marriage in the media can make 20-somethings feel they must have a ring on their finger to be complete. As if worrying about a career and paying rent isn’t enough to worry about, every holiday season young, single people are faced with Great Aunt Doris and Uncle Leroy asking them when they’re going to settle down and when the grandchildren are coming.
When our culture is putting pressure on us to marry, but at the same time telling us marriage is a joke, people are more likely to jump into a relationship or settle just for the sake of being married.
Anyone who knows a couple who has been married for years knows a strong marriage takes work. Getting married isn’t like buying a car. Sure, you can test drive spouse material and look thoroughly under the hood before making the purchase, but if it ends up needing new spark plugs or the leather interior becomes dull, you can’t trade it in for a newer model.
Well, you could, but it may end up costing you a small fortune and weekends with your kids.
Along with being label-hungry, we are an impulsive generation. High-speed Internet and cell phone text-messaging have made us accustomed to instant gratification. It seems marriage, which in my opinion is the most important decision a person will make, has been thrown into the same category as spontaneously getting a tattoo. It’s exciting when you’re doing it, but have you thought it through and how it will look in 70 years?
My advice to my peers is to get your fashion, music and pop-culture advice from wherever you want, but re-evaluate your morals and what’s most important to you in life.
And this holiday season, when first-cousin-twice removed Gladys haggles you about getting hitched, just reply, “Why should I? I already get nagged enough by you.”
