It's Raining Men

Women are highly pressured in today's society. Any idea why?

When I was in my teens, I was warned to stay off boys. The rebellious me started dating at 14 anyway. Since then, I couldn't remember a period where I didn't have a boyfriend. Until four years ago that is - when some philanderer broke my heart.

Fast forward to 2005 - age 29. I get to know new people. After revealing how "young' I am, I received a barrage of mindless comments like - "You are not young anymore leh. Aren't you afraid?" or "Don't you want to settle down? You'll be left on the shelf cos you are not getting any younger." or worse still - "Why are you not attached? Too choosy ar? High expectations?"

So much for tact. Such presumptuous nimcompoops.

These people are simply asking for it. What happens next is they will receive a whole lecture from me on why I think women should not get married just because societal dictates that it must be so, or that it must happen within a certain age/time limit.

Most ridiculous don't you think?

I do not want to be pressured into marriage just because I am getting OLD. I do not believe couples should rush into marriage because they have received the keys to their new flat. I object violently to the notion of marrying someone just because all my friends are already hitched. And the thought of marrying just for the sake of fulfiling societal standards (set by parents, friends, relatives, and other nosy parkers otherwise known as "KAYPOs") is simply APPALLING.

Marriage - I believe - should still be fundamentally based on compatibility and a lot of respect and love. And if I cannot find anyone who I can respect greatly, love deeply or even have the slightest tinge of compatibility to moi (and my idiosyncracies), then I am better off alone wouldn't I?

Why would anyone want to get married and be stuck in a loveless relationship, in which you disregard your partner and where both personalities are so conflicting that the only way out is to sleep in seperate beds? Or maybe the fastest way - which most young couples are so keen to take on right now - is to sign your name off and divorce yourself from your so-called "loved one".

How convenient. Machiam grocery shopping. You find a flaw in your product, you reject the goods and ask for refund.

So to all out there who's fond of laying the guilt trip on single women like myself, and demanding to know WHY we aren't throwing ourselves to marry any Tom, Dick or Harry that tumbled from the sky, LAY OFF.

Men that we wanted to marry do not sit pertly on supermarket shelves waiting for us to pick them up. Neither are they available in the window displays of shopping malls - for us to grab and drag down the aisle the very same day.

Marriage is not the solution to all single women's problems. In fact, they may jolly well be the beginning of our sorrows. You'd never know, would you?