Globe: asking permission to wed all the rage, maybe
Globe trendspotter Irene Sege has a scoop: asking Dad for permission to wed is back!
Before Bob Hunt dropped to bended knee on the famed Cliff Walk in
Newport, R.I., and asked his high school sweetheart to marry him, he’d
taken her father to dinner at a Chili’s restaurant and sought his
permission.
‘‘Because I have such a great relationship with
her family,’’ Hunt says, ‘‘it makes it that much more important that I
ask for permission.’’
Reviving a tradition that seemingly went
the way of the flapper and Prohibition, young men like Hunt these days
are talking to their intendeds’ parents before popping the question.
While there are no numbers to track the trend, call a bridal store or
wedding venue or otherwise inquire among the betrothed and the newlywed
and their parents and it is easy to find examples. Jenna Bush’s fiancé,
Henry Hager, reportedly had a private tête-à-tête with her father, the
president, before he proposed one summer morning at sunrise atop
Cadillac Mountain in Maine. What these young men embrace as a gesture
of courtesy and respect has roots in an era when women had few rights
and little opportunity. [emphasis added]
On the one hand, you've got to give Sege credit. Good for her for acknowledging that this is basically about treating women like property. Kudos, too, for covering her butt (inspired by Jack Shafer?) with that "no numbers to track the trend" line.
But still, Irene.... What "no numbers to back the trend," how can you say the Bob Hunts of the world are "[r]eviving a tradition that seemingly went the way of the flapper and Prohibition"? It's kind of confusing. And the more you think about it, the less sense it makes.
P.S.--Nice choice of venue, Bob.
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