ARRANGED : MISTRESS MANIFESTO FILM REVIEW

 This is a fictive film, but it was realistic, and is about an unlikely friendship between two young teachers, one an Orthodox Jewish woman and the other from a Muslim family.  Both women insisted on education and a job before an arranged marriage.  The principal of their school is a modern woman who wants them to choose to be modern too and it's especially difficult because the multi-ethnic and racial students are being encouraged to be open and accepting of each other's differences.  The Muslim woman's family seems far more modern and are personally arranging for her to meet men.  She also manages to help her Orthodox Jewish friend's matchmaker find the perfect match for her friend.

The pressure upon the Jewish Orthodox woman to marry just about anyone by her parents and the Matchmaker are cringeworthy.  Anyone who has ever gone on an arranged blind date with Mr. or Ms. Wrong can relate.

It occurs to me as I watch this film and the other's I'm review this month that today's women are right to want their independence and choose who they wish to marry or not marry.  However, it seems to me that some parents have offered no guidance at all and that women sometimes are ignorant of what's important to them personally.

As well, royalty and aristocracy has continued to arrange marriage, or at least make it clear what expectations are and see to it that their children only meet others of their set, class, or caste, so that they will "fall in love" with someone likely to be approved of.  Today Western women often have affairs or relationships before marriage and, as we know, some continue to do so, as do their husbands, after marriage.

 Perhaps in the case of the Orthodox Jewish woman or a Muslim woman, it's assumed that the companionable couple will find love or learn to love their husband, especially because they will have children together. Are these marriages Mistress-Proof, unlike the unhappy arranged couplings of royals and aristocrats?  I have no way of knowing.

But I think their lives are so controlled that they probably don't dare because their families as well as their communities are involved.

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