“You have to be financially independent,” my mother would say. American social and pop culture taught me otherwise: Girls were to work toward one goal — getting married. I experienced it on TV shows like “The Nanny” and “Sex and the City,” that ended with the female protagonists married or heading that way; in women’s magazines (remember Glamour’s Engagement Chicken recipe, which was said to secure any man? ); and in songs about romance that occupy many a wedding playlist.

Source: New York Times May 15, 2020 14:10 UTC