ravells: Two of my ex-girlfriends were American - I didn't find them dominant, shallow or pushy in the least.
All of them are - why would they be girlfriends otherwise? Apparently something bad happens when girlfriends become wives...
Miko, I hate to say it, but I think you have a very romanticised view of Asian marriages.
I do not have first-hand experience of it but an opinion from the people I tend to trust. Anyway, considering those women to be properly programmed is hardly "romanticising" on my part.
Vulcan: Wrong. For example, its quite common for Asian women to control the finances, and in a business to have much more control than the men.
And don't even both arguing with me on this one.
Wrong!? Argue with you!? Your example is exactly what I ment by "brought up to perform their traditional family roles". The complete maganement of household and household finances is one of the traditional family roles a properly brought-up asian woman is expected to perform.
My wife is not an asian, so it took me several years to train her to take full control of the family finances.
A question I have been pondering for a while but could not spare time for detailed research. As far as I know the very concept of "romantic love" was an artificial creation of relatively recent Middle Ages or later - the "Age of Chivalry" or rather the time when that "age" was invented by travelling minstrels. Even after that it was extremely rare and did not spread among general population untill 19th century (increased women literacy, cheap book printing and spread of romantic novels?).
Before that in our western civilisation - which most trace from Ancient Greece - there was no concept of "love" between a man and a woman. At least as we understand it - romantic love.
They had attraction and lust but no "love".
And not like they did not romanticis. They romanticised all the time but only the friendship (between men), not love.
They were constantly discussing the "virtues of woman" but those virtues had very little with romantic concept but mostly with suitability to be a wife. Marriages were mostly arranged by experienced adults and as long as the woman's "virtues" corresponded to the advertised ones, a man had a good wife and both were happy.
I have not seen anything in other cultures - eastern, muslim, otehrs - that resembles the modern western concept of romantic love but much closer to the concepts of pre-romanticism.
I believe the major problem with american women is that they believe in the romantic love - which is natural, given our media, and when they face the reality (of it's non-existance) they cannot handle it or fail to realise it and blame the man for not keeping alive what never existed.
Asians and other cultures' women are just more realistic.
miko