What? Wife?

I had to post this. I was just checking my yahoo email account and happened to notice the advertisement on the side. At first I was focusing on why the same woman was dressed differently to represent different attributes - bubbly, humorous, smart. And then I read further and saw the matrimonial services part and am now confused on multiple fronts.

- First, why is there an ad for matrimonial services on my yahoo account. I should be reading about the latest razors or Netflix. Not some crazy, quasi-legal, quasi-ethical wife finding service. What happened to yahoo?
- Is this an American thing or a UK thing? I’m plugged in at work that goes through our central office in the UK. Does that mean the internet is picking up the UK connection? Does that mean the British are a sleazier clientele than the Americans? Who knew.
- Talk about shady. Did you see the name of the company? It’s shady!
- And finally, I still don’t get the ad. Does this mean that no matter what I want, they’ll give me the same girl? Just dressed differently.

As you can tell, I’m not wild about the business of finding someone a wife. I realize the online dating I dabble in shares traits but it’s a two way street. Well really four way if you consider the gay/lesbian partnerships. If they sold husbands too, I’d reconsider, and maybe get myself one. But they never do, do they?

Any business that profits over the selling of women doesn’t sit well with me. It shouldn’t exist and at the very least it shouldn’t be accepted in mainstream but shunned. I’ve been with yahoo for almost 15 years, but am reconsidering now. It reminds me of that small film, 2 Brothers and a Bride that starred Tim Blake Nelson and David Arquette. It touched on the reality of the wife selling business but ended with a Hollywood ending – rarely the case I imagine. Too many Law & Orders and of course I’m half way through A Girl who Played with Fire which is all about the sex trade and talks about the promise of a better life in the Western world for these girls.

It does make me appreciate being born an American into an affluent middle class family.