How did we spend so much of our history advocating our right to choose our own romantic destinies, only to return to various systems of arranged relationships? Remember the ancient romances? The stories about young lovers forsaking their families' agendas and pursuing their own ideas of true love. Remember how our predecessors followed that model in search of their own little taste of transcendent romance?
Now, more and more of us turn to strangers, algorithms, Greg Behrendt(?) to sort it out for us. And I wonder if this reversion represents a positive change for heterosexual couples. Is it just too much for us to expect ourselves to figure it out on our own? Did we bite off more than we could chew?
I wonder if we were wrong to think that we were qualified to partner ourselves off to begin with. I wonder how plausible our individual and collective fantasies of love actually are.
I wonder how much this series of movies, tv shows and books that blame women's expectations for the array of common romantic difficulties is going to help us. But most of all, I wonder how VH1 finally managed to suck me into a reality show. Enter: Tough Love
