r/PurplePillDebate • u/SmirkingImperialist • 2h ago
Debate Men having to "prove themselves" and "get their shit together" is not at all a "new" thing but the modern pattern of dating and marriage is not the only model historically; but blame the British Empire for its dominance
Let me introduce you to the Northwestern European Marriage Pattern (EMP), often delineated by "Hajnal’s Line" (the line in red) running from Saint Petersburg to Trieste. EMP describes a unique demographic regime characterized by exceptionally late marriage ages (typically mid-to-late 20s for both sexes), high rates of definitive celibacy (10–20% never marrying), and strictly neolocal household formation, where couples were expected to establish an economically independent home upon marriage relatively far away from their parents' home (like the next village over). Historically dominant from the late Middle Ages through the 19th century across England, the Low Countries, Northern France, Scandinavia, and German-speaking regions, the system relied heavily on life-cycle servitude. Young adults spent 10 to 15 years as wage laborers or farm servants in other households, accumulating capital before marrying (generally, Middle Age men started working at 14, so 10-15 years later means that they are 24-29. Note that if you start working now at 20-21 after college, 10-15 years later means 30-35). This created a rational, homeostatic "preventive check" where marriage and fertility rates naturally fluctuated in response to real wages and economic constraints: if the economic situation is bad, people delayed marriages and childbirth.
The foundational text defining this phenomenon is British demographer John Hajnal’s landmark 1965 paper, "European Marriage Patterns in Perspective", which established the geographical boundaries and structural features of the EMP. Historical anthropologist Alan Macfarlane expanded on this in "The Origins of English Individualism" (1978) and "Marriage and Love in England" (1986), linking the pattern to deep-rooted English legal individualism, consensual spouse choice, and pre-industrial capitalist development.
You may think "why Northwestern European Marriage Pattern" in particular while this is basically the norm almost everywhere in the world, and well, it has spread and become the dominant cultural ideal in much of the world thanks to the dominance of the Anglo-American empires, but it's not the only system. Traditionally, Eastern Europe, Southern Italy, Ireland, and Southern Spain had different systems: they are more extended-family oriented. Further beyond Europe had even more variations and differences. Technically, you don't need to "have your life in order", or in the formal definition: "Young adults spent 10 to 15 years as wage laborers or farm servants in other households, accumulating capital before marrying". Outside of this area, people marry into a bigger family and rely on established farms and estates to make a living, as part of a clan, tribe, or extended group. You have cousin arranged marriages in the Islamic world, or traditional match-making/arranged marriages. You can do it today, if you family is rich and want to do it.
This is by no means a "new" phenomenon. It's a few hundred years old. It's easy to dream or talk about a totally free and completely blind to everything, and only "love and personality"-oriented marriage, but realistically, it has always been wealth and status-based, either personal capital, or familial/clan/tribal capital.
There is a wrinkle and a new addition to this and that's women have been gaining in higher educations and earnings over their male peers. I read about Malaysian university students staying in universities longer and graduating at higher rates than the male counterparts 20 years ago. This is a pretty widespread phenomenon. Simultaneously, as Melissa Kearney pointed out (if you don't want to read the book, she did a lot of talks on YT. I recommend the earliest book launch talk at Brookings. She's cringey when she's invited to conservative outlets and podcast bros' podcasts), marriage in the US has solidified along class lines. Female college graduates marry at a higher rates than non-college graduates (only about 18% never-married at 40-45 compared to 33% in non-college peers) and their marriages last longer (~78% first time marriages in female college-graduates survive at 20-year mark, compared to 40-50% in non-college-graduates' marriages). College didn't make women unmarriageable. It made them the hottest bacheloretes around who get to pick the best male stock possible for marriage, in terms of education or earning.
That being said, I need to admit that I wrote all the above from a position of privilege: my parents have money, I have post-grad degrees, and I'm married. I did not experience the struggle for very long. In the 6 years between I decide that "I should start dating" to "I'm married", I spent may be 2 months being single.