Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Restoring hope for marriage

The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute is having a contest for college students to win a hope chest:

The prize (you guessed it--a fabulous, authentic, cedar-lined hope chest filled to the brim with fun, fancy and frivoulous items that any newlywed would would envy) not only celebrates marriage, but makes the man-hating feminists crazy!
Deadline is March 14, and you can read the details here. The prize will go to the student who signs up the most of her fellow students to receive the 2008 "Luce Ladies" calendar, featuring such conservative stars as Michelle Malkin:



Blogging at Wendy Shalit's "Modestly Yours" site, Princeton student Cassandra DeBenedetto writes:

CBLPI is encouraging women to set their sights (and hearts) on marriage instead of sex.
Common misconceptions about medieval marriage law and customs associate hope chests and dowries with women being devalued as property. In reality, these traditions carried with them no such degradation. Hope chests were simply used to store the hand-made goods and other items that a woman wished to bring to her future marriage. Essentially, a hope chest was part of her preparation for those first couple years of marriage, and, as the name suggests, symbolized her hope in marriage.
Very true, although I hope Miss DeBenedetto will see the error in her phrase "marriage instead of sex." It's not an either/or proposition. Sex is quite nearly essential to marriage. Setting your sights on marriage certainly doesn't mean you're not interested in sex; it just means waiting 'til you say "I do" before you ... well, before you do.

Perhaps Miss DeBenedetto would have said "marriage instead of promiscuity" or "marriage instead of fornication," but she probably didn't want to sound judgmental.

Me, I've got no such compunction. I'm a married father of six, my eldest child is an 18-year-old college sophomore, and I know I wouldn't want her whoring around like some of these girls do.

Being judgmental is part of a parent's job. And part of the problem affecting young people nowadays is that parents are failing at that job, because it's politically incorrect to speak the blunt truth about certain things.

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting! And thank you for pointing it out. As for the hope chests...you speak the truth! No "Linens Plus" or "Bed, Bath, and Beyond" in those days! Much of what was needed in the home was produced in the home. You bought cotton or wool, or produced it (wool, more so since they would have their own sheep), spun it and then wove it. Guess what those women did on long winter evenings! When you (used to) hear that expression "a woman's work is never done"...there was a reason for it. Leisure time did not exist!

    We are _so_ lucky to live today!

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