The Rules
Nerve's Em & Lo expose the inherent evil in The Rules for Online Dating. "Yes, if you don't want to be brazen, funny, interesting, have a good time (or sex), or meet someone other than a big fat stupid meathead — then by all means listen to them." (Aug 2002)
At the Guardian, Robert Kelsey complains that American women are lousy dates because they're all following The Rules. Agreed that this whole The Rules phenomenon is stupid (unless you're a shallow, materialistic woman seeking a joyless marriage to a shallow, materialistic man), but this guy sounds clueless and bitter. Bitterness is not sexy. (Aug 2002)
Katie Roiphe explores the influence and appeal of The Rules even among educated, ambitious, liberal, independent women, despite the "absurd rigidity [and] humourless desperation" of the books' recommendations. "But it seems that The Rules tapped into a larger anxiety in the culture; in their simplistic, jingoistic way, they expressed a need, a yearning, a worry about old-fashioned courtship that is worth taking into account." Katie Roiphe is a fine writer, in my book, despite all the hysterical abuse directed at her throughout the 1990s.
The Guardian (Aug 2001)
Beth Teitell shamelessly gloats over the news that Ellen Fein, co-author of The Rules, is
getting divorced
just as The Rules III: Time-Tested Secrets for Making Your Marriage Work nears publication.
Boston Herald (Apr 2001)
The new issue of Bitch is on the newsstands. The magazine's web site promises every article from
sold-out back issues will eventually be posted online, but for now there are maybe a half-dozen pieces there.
From last winter's issue: Andi Zeisler dissects the publishing industry's retrograde obsession with
neurotic,
marriage-obsessed single women, from The Rules to Bridget Jones's Diary to the flood
of Bridget wannabes (not to mention fine books which don't fit the stereotype but which got marketed as
Bridget wannabes anyway).
Bitch
