Is Marriage Right for You? Take Young Romance's Marriage Preparedness Quiz!
“Nowadays, girls have more choices than they ever did before... In fact, the Women’s Liberation Movement has given a whole new status to women as people — not as housewives and mothers. The question arises: Is marriage right for every girl??”
Marriage is pretty much par for the course in romance comics. Engagements, weddings, and all the other events and emotions that revolve around the institution were prevalent in the pages of the love comics. Influenced by second wave feminism, quizzes like the one below from Young Romance #190 (January 1973) began to pop up, along with sequential stories that incorporated the increasing visibility of the Women's Movement. This particular quiz with questions about careers, education, politics, and domesticity, planted the seed that maybe, just maybe, marriage (especially young marriage) wasn't for everyone.
How did you score? I got a 44. In my twenties, I probably would have gotten a result indicating that I was less about marriage and more about career. But as I enter the second year of my thirties, the prospect of having a family of my own is becoming increasingly important. Since the majority of romance comic readers were on the younger side, I have a feeling that many who took the quiz were on the extreme ends of the spectrum rather than in-between like myself.
In the issue, the quiz was followed by a closely connected sequential piece titled, "I Am a Woman!" penciled by Tony DeZuniga. The story tells the plight of Toni, an unhappy newlywed. The reason why Toni is prepared to leave her new groom? Well... you're gonna have to wait 'til next time to find out! Join me then for the rest of "I Am a Woman!"
