Smart Girls Marry Money

For Once! An accurate blog review of SMART GIRLS MARRY MONEY!

2009-08-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.livingalmostlarge.com/2009/08/13/free-book-smart-girls-marry-money/comment-page-1/#comment-8008

The Brits get it Right again! Book Review in UK's Book Bag of Smart Girls Marry Money

2009-08-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php/Smart_Girls_Marry_Money_by_Elizabeth_Ford_and_Daniela_Drake

Smart Girls Read the Whole Book

2009-08-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

Since when did it become okay to judge a book solely by its cover?

Even famed journalist Michael Kinsley once admitted to breaking this cardinal rule. “You must put aside any fuddy-duddy notion of not judging a book by its cover—or title,” Kinsley wrote when on the panel for the National Book Awards.

His statement was sort of hilarious to us—that is until now that we have written a book with a provocative cover. Our satire has been subject to vicious blogging based on the title alone: Smart Girls Marry Money: How Women Have Been Duped into the Romantic Dream and How They’re Paying For It.

We chose this upsetting title because the underlying subject matter is upsetting: workplace inequalities, easily-disposed-of wives and children, the demand that women be sexy from the time they lose their milk teeth until well after menopause and the astonishing poverty that many hard-working women face in their retirement years.

In order to invite people to talk about these complex issues, we focused our gaze through a satirical lens. Satire satisfies two deep human desires: to laugh with understanding and to invoke corrective change. So we offered an outrageous solution: Marry a Man with Money. At first, we were just trying to get a chuckle.

Here’s our point: marrying for love has only been in vogue for the last 150 years, prior to that marriage was mostly based on economic and political expediencies. These days, we insist on basing marriage solely on romantic love. But science now shows us that “feeling in love” is brought on by a chemical cascade in the brain that acts very much like addiction—and the whole thrill is over within about two years.

For many people, when they find themselves out of love, they want out of the marriage. After all, if falling “in love” is a good enough reason to marry, then falling “out of love” is a good enough reason to divorce. Paradoxically, marrying for love has destabilized the marital union and has driven the divorce rate to right up around 50%.

Should we perhaps be considering other factors when choosing a life partner? And look, we’re just asking. Weren’t we also raised to believe there are no bad questions? Or has that also fallen by the wayside?

Knowing that recent research shows that couples with resources have more stable marriages, perhaps we should take into account our partner’s commitment to supporting the family. Yet, the modern woman is afraid of being labeled a gold digger, who she’s been trained to believe is someone beneath contempt. The self-sufficient modern women, savvy in so many areas of her life, will purposely ignore the fact that marriage is the most important economic partnership she’ll ever make.

None of this would even be worth discussing if workplace inequities were not still rampant, if the burden of child care did not largely fall upon mothers, and if the average woman didn’t make a third what the average man makes over the course of her working life.

We were all brought up to want to fall in love and have a lifelong romance. We’ve nursed the dream since childhood. But now that we are grown women, we have the intellectual heft to inquire if this romantic dream is worth pursuing with such fervor, excluding so many other considerations.

Marry Money? Really?

Sure, it might seem crazy at first, or the idea might just make you mad, or simply make you laugh. But upon closer inspection you may find points worth thinking about.

After all, you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover.

Chapter Sample of Smart Girls Marry Money in Google Books

2009-08-10T11:59:00.001-07:00

http://books.google.com/books?id=Efy5566BBTQC&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&dq=SMART+GIRLS+MARRY+MONEY&source=bl&ots=0fuaidmO09&sig=-49Zz1SqAT1VxR9Et08ydyDzHI4&hl=en#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Smart Girls Marry Money in the Irish Independent

2009-08-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/for-richer--or-poorer-1854792.html

Smart Girls Marry Money in the UK's Sunday Mail

2009-08-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2009/08/09/meet-the-women-using-internet-dating-sites-to-find-rich-men-who-ll-treat-them-like-princesses-78057-21584298/

Smart Girls Marry Money on CNN.com, top ten most emailed story!

2009-07-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/07/06/tf.marrying.for.money/index.html

For two days, this was in the top ten most emailed stories on CNN.com (getting up to number five). An article written entirely based on impressions from the Newsweek Article.

Smart Girls Marry Money in NEWSWEEK: Love Me, Love My Bank Account

2009-07-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.newsweek.com/id/202008

Measured article by Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert that covers the book and its implications for the modern woman. Barbara is an obvious genius.

WowOWow article by Daniela Drake author of Smart Girls Marry Money

2009-07-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.wowowow.com/relationships/ismart-girls-marry-for-money-love-marriage-advice-322503?page=0%2C0

Reuters Article by Daniela Drake author of Smart Girls Marry Money

2009-07-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/author/danieladrake/

Smart Women Marry Rich, New Book Says from ABC.com

2009-07-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7757369&page=1

More UK coverage on Smart Girls Marry Money

2009-07-19T12:23:00.001-07:00

http://chat.metro.co.uk/metro/threadnonInd.jsp?forum=92&thread=309561&message=985374

More SGMM in WSJ

2009-07-19T12:22:00.001-07:00

http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/06/16/is-it-smart-to-marry-for-money/

Smart Girls Marry Money in the Wall Street Journal

2009-07-19T12:20:00.001-07:00

http://blogs.wsj.com/wallet/2009/06/12/do-smart-women-marry-for-money/

They are even talking about SMART GIRLS MARRY MONEY in South Africa!

2009-07-19T12:19:00.001-07:00

http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/minor/2009/06/10/marry-for-love-or-money/

Book Critic Anne Kingston Loved Smart Girls Marry Money

2009-07-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

http://mcpublishers.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/smart-girls-marry-money/

She described our book as subversive...a sort of cuisinart of all the issues relevant to women today...

Steve Lopez believes he needs to school Smart Journalist Lu Parker

2009-07-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/06/lu_parker_should_have_lun.php

Lu Parker is a journalist and former Miss USA 1994. A charming woman, both Elizabeth and I feel bad for any grief caused by the incident. Go, Lu!

From the Annals of Ridiculousness via the LA Times from our book signing for SMART GIRLS MARRY MONEY

2009-07-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/02/local/me-villaraigosa2

At our first book signing at Chevalier's in Larchmont Village, the rather dashingly handsome LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped in with a pretty young woman named Lu Parker. It was pure coincidence. They stopped in on their own personal business.

Elizabeth handed the book to Lu and we snapped a picture. But one of the picture takers had some media connections and the next thing you know it becomes a minor story here in LA. They even mentioned the name of our book. The mayor and Lu Parker were very gracious. The LA articles about the coincidence....not so much.

Kate Spicer of the UK ponders the proposals we make in SMART GIRLS MARRY MONEY

2009-07-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article6365533.ece

We recommend following Kate Spicer's writings. She has good ear for what's au current and an exquisite writing style. And we're saying this even though she ended her commentary about our book with a not-so-very-nice conclusion. We are still Spicer Girls.

Irish Writer Wants to burn books, Well one book actually: SMART GIRLS MARRY MONEY!

2009-07-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/0526/1224247402023.html

In a personal email to me she said she promised not to burn the book!

Having it All is a Myth Girls...Times Online

2009-07-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6301059.ece

Well respect (at least my UK friends say so) writer India Knight weighs in.

My Style Likes SMART GIRLS MARRY MONEY

2009-07-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.mystyle.com/mystyle/detail/index.jsp?contentId=3188

Miami Herald Picked Us Up.

2009-07-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/frugalista/2009/07/do-smart-women-marry-for-money.html

I blogged on her site so Ima keep it brief here. She hasn't read it, but plans to.

They say they'll read it, too.

2009-07-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

http://selfhelpdiscovery.com/5343/do-smart-women-marry-for-money/

Why do people blog about what they plan to read? I'm going to read the WSJ weekend edition later today but I'm not so sure anyone cares...NTL, thanks for the mention.

Wordpress plans to read SGMM

2009-07-19T11:20:00.001-07:00

http://covetedthingsinlife.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/smart-girls-marry-money/#comment-49

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds differentiates herself from Smart Girls Marry Money

2009-07-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com/2009/06/smart-women-marry-rich-big-blue-eyes-or-big-green-bankroll/

We respect her site and all that she is trying to do "one stiletto at a time." I'm just sorry we all have to be wearing stilettos. For some reason, a writer asked the owner of this blog to comment on our book. She attempts to differentiate herself from us in her piece, we are not sure why.

We clearly have essentially the same story to tell, but in different voices.

We are part of a choir singing the same chorus. The sopranos, the altos, and the mezzosopranos (refuse to look up proper spelling of this) are all needed.

Brisbane Times picks up our feed

2009-07-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/for-love-or-money-20090608-c0j3.html

"There is nothing wrong with a woman welcoming all men's advances, so long as they are in cash" ... Zsa Zsa Gabor.

DoubleX Calls us CHARMLESS!

2009-07-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/we-all-lose-our-charm-end

Faux intellect Bonnie Goldstein commented that the authors of SMART GIRLS MARRY MONEY are without CHARM. Us?

Yes, Bonnie, dear. I don't find it charming at all that men who earn only a high school diploma make more on average than woman with college degrees. Also uncharming is the alarmingly high poverty rate among women in their senior years. Even less charming is the (on average) 10% equity partners that women represent in large businesses like accounting and law firms. (I have more but the book is actually quite a fast read.)

Instead she fixes her focus on our naughty words and throwaway lines that were meant (in context) to add a little levity to an otherwise tragic circumstance of the continued inequality of women in the workplace.

I wouldn't have even commented on her thoughtless commentary except for two things. 1) it got picked up by SLATE, a zine I respect because of Michael Kinsley who I love above all others (except Fareed Zakaria and Stephen Colbert) 2) Authors of late have been scandously answering back their critics piquing the prurient interests of other faux intellectuals such as myself. Consider this:

Alain de Botton in response to NYTimes Critic: “I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make."

Ayelet Waldman, in response to Jill Lepore's New Yorker Review, tweeted, "The book is a feminist polemic, you ignorant twat. GOD I hate her."

Alice Hoffman in response to The Boston Globe's Roberta Silman tweeted, “Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron...How do some people get to review books? And give the plot away.” Then Hoffman posted the critic's private phone and email, inviting fans to “Tell her what u think of snarky critics.”

Hoffman got skewered and no longer tweets.

Are smart girls gold diggers?

2009-07-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.komonews.com/economy/45847552.html

Elizabeth Ford, former daughter-in-law of Harrison Ford, does radio interview about Smart Girls Marry Money

Rich woman seeks buyer for good-as-new designer frock

2009-07-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article6010065.ece

Just one more benefit of marrying money! LOL.

The Biology of Beauty

2009-07-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.newsweek.com/id/102350?tid=relatedcl

Fascinating article by Geoffrey Cowley about beauty and its biologic and emotional importance to us.

Bitch Magazine

2009-07-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/show-me-the-money-honey

Nothing like throwing your two cents in without actually reading the book!

Info on the book

2009-07-19T10:26:00.001-07:00

http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0762435178

AOL Smart Women: Marry for Money? Not Love?

2009-05-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

This is a Q & A with Daniela and Elizabeth.

http://www.aolhealth.com/healthy-living/relationships/marry-for-money?icid=main|main|dl3|link2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolhealth.com%2Fhealthy-living%2Frelationships%2Fmarry-for-money

Elizabeth Edwards: Men will always want younger women...

2009-05-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

This sounds familiar. Timeless. Not last week, five-minutes ago or long-forgotten. Seems like it just might be part of the human condition.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/05/edwards-oprah-e.html

SMART GIRLS ON OPRAH!!!!

2009-04-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Never mind that it's not true! But that's what the blogosphere says!

http://trentolson.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/smart-girls-marry-money-on-oprah/

Salma Hayek, Successful Actress Now Spurned as Gold Digger

2009-04-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

Forget what the CDC.Gov has to say about the latest epidemics, maybe Gold Digging will be the wave of the future. Thanks Salma Hayek for bringing Smart Choices in Marriage out of the shadows.

And yet we remained stunned at the vitriol aimed at her. She's beautiful, brilliant and able. Didn't her husband have his own reasons for marrying her?

What do you think?

http://thesuperficial.com/2009/02/salma_hayek_gets_married.php

Perseus Books Official Post about Smart Girls Marry Money

2009-04-26T18:55:00.001-07:00

http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0762435178

FEMINIST GOLD DIGGERS

2009-04-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

Has to be my favorite title of all. Kind of says everything. Anyway, here's the link, it's a short and sweet review.

http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/advice/tips/marrying-money

Smart Girls Marry Money on Mancow Syndicated Show

2009-04-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth and Daniela were on the Mancow Morning Madhouse this morning. Not knowing what he was going to hit us with, we were prepared for combat. Instead, he and his co-host Marissa seemed to agree with us.

They agreed that Romantic Love is like the brain on Crack! Studies have shown that when you're in love your brain scans actually make you look insane. This goes on for a good two years. Is this the best time to make a judgment about who your lifelong partner will be?

We think not.