I just heard word about this lovely product, a Japanese-made bra that “has a built-in digital timer indicating how much time’s left before the woman wearing it must get married.” Sounds awesome. I love how it says that she “must” get married–what, is it going to blow up if she doesn’t stick the engagement ring/key in it?

I’m not too familiar with the situation in Japan in terms of marriage and families, but I don’t think the solution is to lure women into marriage by making ridiculous (and pretty useless) brassieres. The women who choose to work rather than have husbands and families are just weighing their options. Where will I get paid the most? Where will I feel most fulfilled in my everyday life? Where will I have the most financial security and independence? Where will what I do actually be of value to someone? A lot of women in the United States ask themselves the same questions, and for some women, the options just really seem limited. I think if there were better options for women who face this kind of choice, options such as flex time/part time work or free daycare or something to help them balance work and family, then maybe this wouldn’t be as big a problem. And maybe then we wouldn’t have to come up with really stupid ways to convince women to get married.