This fall, \u201csingle ladies\u201d interested in ensnaring a man can take a course at St. Louis Community College, listed in the <\/a>catalogue as \u201cGirls\u2019 Night Out:\u00a0 \u201cMarry Me Dishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stumbled onto this when the 2016 St. Louis Community College Continuing Education catalogue arrived in my mailbox. I’m not making this up. This is not an Onion<\/em> story or a spoof. And if the course title wasn’t enough, things got even wackier when I read through the description. I can only hope that the course instructor wrote this with a wink, as a joke that we’d all get. But, living in Missouri as I do, and knowing how conservative some of our citizens are [We have a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage], I doubt that there’s any irony intended.<\/p>\n

I invite you to judge for yourself. Here’s the verbatim wording of the class description. It’s listed, by the way, in the Personal Enrichment section of the catalogue. Read into that what you will…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Girls Night Out: “Marry Me Dishes”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Calling all single ladies! Say \u201cgoodbye\u201d to the single lady status! Learn to prepare \u201cmarry me\u201d dishes that will have him \u201cput a ring on it!\u201d\u00a0 Start off the evening with a bacon-beer cheese dip that is perfect for his next tailgating event or home game party. We\u2019ll prepare \u201cmarry me chicken\u201d\u2014a skillet Sicilian Chicken with a sun-dried tomato garlic-cream sauce that will impress your honey! Our lobster mashed potatoes will wow your man the next time you make his favorite steak. Finish off the night with the ultimate sweet for your sweetie\u2014the deal-sealing \u201cmarry me\u201d ultimate loaded chocolate chip cookies! There will be plenty of tasting plus you can take home any leftovers [bring a container]\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The class description doesn\u2019t include this, but I wonder if participants will be climbing into a time machine and going back to 1956 during the 6:30 \u2013 9:30 pm class period. That would seem to be a requirement, as the notion that \u201cgirls\u201d need to attract men via their cooking skills is a giant leap backwards in social expectations.\u00a0 [Not to mention that, according to this description, men like their steaks and have tailgating parties, while the women’s jobs, apparently, are to stay in the kitchen, anticipating their men\u2019s needs, preparing their food, impressing them with their womanly cooking skills, and waiting for them to propose marriage.]<\/a><\/p>\n

And, what if there\u2019s a guy who likes to cook? Can he take this course? Who might he attract–gawd forbid?<\/p>\n

The last time I saw a stereotype like this, it was written on the cover of my mother\u2019s favorite cookbook [she\u2019s 102 now, but it was her standby in our family\u2019s kitchen.] Its title was: \u201cThe Settlement Cookbook: The Way to a Man\u2019s Heart.\u201d\u00a0 It was first published in 1903.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This fall, \u201csingle ladies\u201d interested in ensnaring a man can take a course at St. Louis Community College, listed in the catalogue as \u201cGirls\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,476,119,877],"tags":[2705,2179,2509],"yoast_head":"\n