heh… thought this article was kindof interesting. i’m just posting the first half of this article, but there’s a fair bit more.
21st century, not England in the 1800s. Kindof weird to think that we still have to package ourselves to attain this supposedly utopian ideal of nabbing “Mr. Right”. It’s the packaging and marketing concepts that rather turn me off - the last half of the very first sentence of the article sums it up: “…every woman is her own three-word brand.”
How to catch Mr. Right, Sharon Krum, The Guardian, 8 January 2004
To Rachel Greenwald, Harvard MBA, every woman is her own three-word brand. If Madonna were a brand, she says, Mrs Ritchie might be Outrageous, Sexual, Pop Singer. If Mother Teresa had been a brand, she might have been Noble, Selfless, Charity Worker. And if you are a woman over 35 and unmarried, your brand, she intimates, might be Desperate, Hopeless, Frantic. Which can only mean one thing: it is time to change your brand.
If you do not, the worst-case scenario will occur. You will never find a husband. You will be worthless and incomplete, and you will spend the rest of your life alone with cats for company. And no, this is not a joke. In fact, it is step five in a 15-point programme that Greenwald outlines in her American bestseller, Find a Husband After 35 Using What I Learned at Harvard Business School. In the UK, where the book is being published next week, the title has been changed to The Program - How to Find a Husband After 30. Apparently, women in the UK hit the panic button earlier than their American sisters.
Not since The Rules hit the radar in the mid-90s has a dating “how to” created so much noise, a din that has turned Greenwald - with her book, website, seminars, and private coaching - into a mini dating empire. Greenwald has brilliantly targeted the already frenzied over-30 set, used the lure of a Harvard MBA to gain their confidence, then promised that if they work all 15 steps, they will bag a man like a prize deer in the hunting season. Mounting him on the wall after the wedding is optional, of course.
The very married Greenwald, 39, who used to market Evian water and costume jewellery, says the idea of the book came to her when she realised the dating advice she was giving to single friends echoed the advertising campaigns she used to design.
“I was giving them the same stuff I was saying in my day job as a marketing consultant - packaging, branding, niche marketing - and it struck me there was a connection between brand marketing and dating tactics that really made sense,” Greenwald has said.
As long as there are single women, there will be books instructing them how to nab a spouse. Who can forget The Rules phenomenon, which instructed women to play hard to get just like grandma did? Like The Rules, Find a Husband After 35 feeds into the same old-maid prejudice (although Greenwald insists the book is only for women hungry for marriage, and does not judge committed singles), but takes a different tack. It asks women not to manipulate men but themselves, to market themselves like a frozen dinner or a Mars bar.
“A product can be the greatest item in the world, but unless it has an effective advertising campaign behind it, it can fail in the marketplace,” she writes, adding that all successful campaigns cost money. “Create a dedicated budget for finding a husband. I suggest using a guideline of 10% of your annual income. If possible, use 20%. What could be a better use of your money than finding a man with whom you will spend the rest of your life?”
With a budget in place and a brand image identified - you might decide on Witty, Redhead, Social Worker - Greenwald advises that the way to sell your brand is exactly the way she sold water to people who have it in their taps at home; glossy packaging, exciting advertising, mass marketing.
When it comes to packaging, she insists women assemble a focus group of trusted friends to grade them on their appearance using the “Dow Jane Index”. “Always wear a push-up bra. After 35 it can’t hurt and can only help,” she instructs, adding that everything from plastic surgery to diets to dental overhauls must be considered when it comes to wrapping a better package. “Be feminine. Men like long hair. Men are attracted to women in skirts rather than trousers.” So that’s the reason you’re 37 and single. It’s the trouser suits. Who knew?
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Rest of article accessible via link.
Pride and Prejudice as well in a way because, ultimately, Lizzie does get the guy and that gives the ‘happy’ fairy-tale ending … hm but it’s still one of my favourite movies 
). Think about it from childhood - why are dolls pushed onto girls as gifts? We’re taught from childhood to be caring and maternal and all that.
