"We're fine! We've got diplomas!"

Yesterday, President Obama urged students to stay in school.  He said that you can’t drop out of school and expect to drop into a good job. Well, apparently, you can’t drop into a good marriage either.

According to National Affairs, there is a higher divorce rate in non-college-educated couples vs. those who earned a degree. I wonder why that is? My personal opinion is that after four years of whoring around school and testing the waters, college grads were finally able to pick their favorite brand of life-partner.

Alternatively, maybe they honed their patience skills after spending four years battling academia. Years of exams, presentations and thesis papers have made marriage look like a piece of cake, comparatively.

Yet maybe college grads have a lower divorce rate because after sharpening their minds and taking a logical look at the institution of marriage, they opt not to marry at all. Saving themselves from expensive weddings, shared checking accounts and intrusive in-laws all together.

Most likely, though? Those divorced non-college grads probably never made it to college ‘cuz they got married at 18 before they knew any better and realized too late an X-box-playing husband isn’t so adorbs after all.

Whatever the reason, stay in school, people. You may not be able to get a job right now, but at least you’ll nab yourself a husband. For life.

A lot of people find part of their identity with their religion:

“I’m Catholic”
“I’m atheist”
“I’m Jewish”

Even if someone’s beliefs can’t be put under a specific religious category, everyone has their own opinion on how humans got here and how people should live their lives.  All of these different views come together to make a unique world, but religious differences have the potential to hurt or even end a relationship.

Because religious views generally have a great impact on a person’s lifestyle, differing views can cause conflict in relationships. An atheist may be incredibly uncomfortable if their significant other wanted to attend church every Sunday and prayed every day. Likewise, a person who is used to being involved in religious practices may feel like something is wrong with them if their boyfriend or girlfriend doesn’t want to come with them to Bible study or other religious gatherings.

And then there’s the family. And the potential future family.
It can really become a hot mess of opinions, beliefs and arguments.

While this may be overwhelming for some, there are ways to cope with religious differences and make a relationship last. Taking turns attending religious practices can give both members of the relationship a look into a new religious lifestyle. Each person could take time discussing with the other what their religious views mean to them and what they do or do not want to do because of them. Essentially, a couple needs to reach a compromise that makes them both feel comfortable. Read More »

This Week’s Article: How To Trick Your Girlfriend Into Marrying You on ehow.com.

This week’s article explains how men can trick their girlfriend into marrying them. I think we can all agree tricking someone into marrying you is not a good idea, and I’m not sure why some guy needs to rope some chick into being his wife, but I never claimed to understand the mind of a man. If I did, well, we wouldn’t be here, would we?

Let’s see what these “men” have to say.

EHow says: “When you learn how to trick your girlfriend into marrying you, then you don’t have to stress going after the women of your dreams. Now all you have to do is find her and play the game until your wedding day.”

I say: Well, that explains it. Men need to trick women into marrying them so they don’t have to deal with being rejected by people they actually like. Awesome. Way to go, guys. I think it’s safe to say than any sane woman should never, ever marry someone who is “playing the game,” but some guys just play it oh. so. well. Especially thanks to guides like these ones. Read More »

The best wedding entrance of all time.

Oh no. Jon Gosselin is getting douchier.

What do you do when he’s too small?

Gap’s Fall line is lookin’ incredibly chic.

What scares men more than sharks?

Eco-friendly jewelry? LOVE it.

As same-sex couples around the country take to the battlefields to fight for their right to marry, American TV is making a mockery of the very thing these couples are wishing for. The collective majority of Americans are against allowing a same-sex couple to enjoy the sanctity of marriage, claiming we should “protect the institution of marriage” and uphold traditional American values. Yet, a new reality show reveals America’s hypocritical nature by turning marriage into a cheap game show.

Hitched or Ditched poses the ultimate ultimatum to a rocky couple: Get married in a week or end it for good. Viewers are drawn to the drama and suspense of whether a couple will say “I do” or be publicly humiliated with rejection. This all or nothing, sh*t-or-get-off-the-pot attitude cheapens the idea of marriage. This show will only reinforce our generation’s cynical attitude that marriages and weddings are nothing more than expensive circuses built around an attention-whoring couple. Something akin to the Speidi extravaganza comes to mind. Read More »

Got a question for the Tuffster? Email her at TuffyLuv@collegecandy.com and get that shiz answered!

Dear Tuffy Luv,

I’ve been with my boyfriend – let’s call him P – for three and a half years. We graduated college together and have been dating since senior year. We moved in together right away – our college was in a town that neither of our families live too near – and we both have decent jobs with salaries. My question is, I really want to get married soon, or at least get engaged, but he doesn’t seem like he has any plan to do that. I don’t want to ask him to marry me so please don’t suggest that, because I want it to be traditional and because HE wants to! What should Ido?

Clare Read More »

I don’t know what it is about MTV, but I am addicted. Those crafty little sons of b*tches in Times Square know their target audience. They have me – and everyone else in the 12-30 age bracket – convinced that what we should really want to watch on TV are really attractive, dumb people saying really dumb (and totally unscripted) things. There’s really nothing quite like a mind-numbing “Next” marathon when you feel like death on Sunday afternoon and they know this.

However, I’m able to cut MTV some slack because they aren’t always the network that shows hot people doing dumb things 24/7. Every once in awhile they cook up an awesome little nugget of TV goodness with some real substance. For example, they devote a decent amount of airtime to True Life. I’m pretty sure the only way you’d not know about True Life is if you had been living under a rock (or without basic cable) for the last ten years, but just in case you don’t know, every ep of True Life tells the entirely true story of 2 or 3 young people who are dealing with a particular issue. Sometimes its personal (“I’m Afraid of Intimacy”), other time it’s situational (“I Have A Summer Share ”), but either way it’s always AWESOME.

The only problem with True Life? There are just so.many.amazing.episodes – and equally as many that never air more than once. Actually this story ended up taking me a lot longer to write than originally planned because I spent more time watching the episodes online than writing about them. (Which reminds me – thank you MTV for putting these all online!) However, I was eventually able to peel my eyeballs away from the episodes and back to my open Word document to write up this list of my faves: Read More »

Summer is well on its way (it’s June already!), as we all know.  Along with the endless sunny days and exponential increase of guys without their shirts on,  we (unfortunately) also have to deal with the beast that is the summer wedding.

Some of you may protest, “but I like weddings!  They’re fun!”  Does sitting around for hours with pit stains in a dress you hate in the company of people you barely know with a severe case of sobriety sound fun to you?  There are obviously some exceptions (especially if you are the bride or you’re just the “+1″ on an invitation), but here are the 10 things we hate about weddings:

1). Bridesmaid Dresses – This is probably the worst thing on our list and definitely the one with the worst reputation (see uglydress.com and the hundreds of other sites dedicated to the fashion offenses committed in the “bridesmaid dress” genre).  A summer wedding could only improve an ugly dress you didn’t want to wear – the pit stains will totally distract people from that pink poofy thing around your hips.

2). Weird Relatives – Seriously, where did those guys come from?  I’ll bet you never knew that your Uncle Jed (Uncle Who??) from Sweden was a professional turnip juggler.  He’s just dying to tell you all about his most  recent competition, too.

3). Inadequate Seating – Wooden chairs and pews are so not comfortable, especially when you’re forced to watch something akin to My Big Redneck Wedding play out in front of your eyes (or, even worse, Bridezillas).  Let’s get some couches up in here, or at least a cushion (at the very least, you could use the excessive amount of tulle in your ugly bridesmaid dress as a make-shift cushion).

4). The Lack of Alcohol – Unfortunately, not all weddings include the magical words “open bar.”  Some of them are even dry weddings (gasp!).  Seriously, if you’re gonna make us sit next to your creepy cousin at the singles table, then you better be handing out the bottles of wine like candy.

5). The Bride – We love her, we want to be her (maybe), but we also want to kill her.  For some reason, once a girl gets a ring on her finger, it’s like getting permission to regress to when you were a toddler and were spoiled by everyone.  Sorry, but if you’re not two years old, you just can’t rock a temper tantrum.

6). Ugly Groomsmen – Even the worst wedding can be saved by a couple pieces of eye candy in tuxes…but nothing ruins a summer wedding faster than an uggo in a sweat-stained tux.  Especially if you’re a bridesmaid.  Especially if you’re a single bridesmaid.

7). Children – Kind of like a spastic bride, if you put a kid in a pretty dress, it’s pretty much a free pass for any and all misbehavin’.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m kinda jealous that they get to take their shoes off and run around screaming in their dress clothes.  However, my jealousy is buried by my displeasure at being seated at the singles table with them (or at the end of the head table, stuck with the job of babysitting the flower girl).

8). The Chicken Dance – Just…no.  No one can look good doing this.  It’s not fun.  It’s not cute.  Stop the madness.

9). Bridesmaid Drama – If you’re lucky enough to be a part of the wedding party, then you get special privileges that other guests do not…such as bridesmaid drama.  Nothing kills an evening like trying to control a cat fight between the bride and her sister.  Trust me, you do not want to get caught up in that.

10). The Sheer Numbers – Once you get to a certain age, you start getting more and more of those little lacy  invitations in the mail (particularly in the summer).  As if one wasn’t enough!  You better invest in a flask and an amazing LBD right now.

Considering we had an extra day this weekend, this past week has been ROUGH. That Monday BBQ was awesome, but Tuesday just felt like the worst Monday of all time. It didn’t help that we ended up with a mullet because we were afraid of  offending our stylist.  Or the fact that we’re just now realizing our current “intimacy lite” situation with the boy we thought was our Prince Charming. But I guess we can’t really complain; at least we have the right to get married, unlike some of our friend in California.

But let’s not go there.

Instead, we’re going to enjoy this lovely spring weekend. Our toes are perfectly pedicured for flip-flops, and we’re going to head to the spa for a luxurious sperm facial (Note: don’t Google that…).  Then we plan to head home, settle in under our Snuggie and get suckered into buying even more crap we don’t need.  Hopefully there is some sort of miracle product on there to keep our abs in tip-top shape.  Nobody wants a mid-summer muffin top crisis.

Here’s to the weekend, even if it is only two days long this week!

[We'd like to take this opportunity to welcome our favorite love, sex and relationship blogger - Lena Chen - to the CollegeCandy team. Lena is smart, funny, and her perspective on all things relationship is incredibly thought provoking. We're so pumped to have her here, so be sure to let us know in the comments what sorts of things you'd like Lena to discuss!]

Marriage isn’t a right; it’s a privilege. Depending on the time, place, and partner, getting married could be harder than getting into Harvard, if not downright impossible. As recently as fifty years ago, miscegenation laws would have forbid me from marrying my boyfriend (or any man not my race) in certain areas of the United States. Before that, the legal and social benefits to getting married were denied to minorities, immigrants, and the poor for centuries. Marriage is, for lack of a better analogy, membership into the biggest country club in the world.

For me, getting married would be a personal endorsement of some of the worst societal norms in existence.

The supposed “right” to marry has never been much of a right at all, and our understanding of marriage as a basic liberty is unique to contemporary times. Thanks to my predisposition for heterosexuality, it’s a liberty I could easily exercise, but I’d much rather march in a rally than down an aisle, because I find it difficult to take part in a practice that is denied to others (plenty of them my friends). Even with the best of intentions, I can’t imagine that my own wedding will serve any purpose but to reinforce existing norms, such as the idea that a relationship is only valuable if recognized by a third-party institution. Read More »