Fairy tale persists of marriage being a woman’s sole route to happiness.

In a hotel in Canada hangs this picture, someone’s mischievous take on Snow White a few years after happily ever after. She is posed in an anonymous suburban den. Behind her, Prince Charming slouches in a chair, slowly going to seed. Snow has a babe in arms and a few other rug rats scattered about the floor. She faces you with an expression that seems to ask, is this all there is?

It is less a comment on marriage than on the notion that marriage is the holy grail of a woman’s existence, the finish line of her life’s hopes, dreams and goals. That is a fable upon which the Disney company built an empire. But the fable is not confined to the multiplex. To the contrary, you can see it played out on a weekly basis in the headlines of any given publication in your local supermarket checkout line. Consider one of the most recent big stories from the Land of the Beautiful People.

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