Here are two opposing opinions on the historical trope where women are forced into arranged marriages. The reply to to the first post urges the poster to “stop girlbossing arranged marriage my god”, lol.
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That hashtag says it all.
Wanted to comment a bit on the last reply there.
In most cases that we’d consider arranged marriages ( it’s 100% between the prospective groom/their parent and the woman’s guardian) usually the prospective groom would still to some degree scope out the prospective bride. Maybe not in cases of royalty where it’s more a case of England marrying Spain than two individuals getting together. But in most cases where the prospective couple are peers there would be social occasions where some level of interaction or at least observation would be possible.
And from there it could go several ways. Prospective groom goes some variation of A: “Well, the politics of the match are good and she seems good enough so let’s go ahead with it”; B: “This would be a good match from a mercenary standpoint but no way could I stand being married to a woman with [insert objectionable trait]”; or C: “I mean, I could make a better match so far as rank or dowery or whatever, but the woman herself is awesome so I’m willing to take a bit of a loss on the rest”. A woman may not really have any yeah or nay vote on her prospective spouse, but she could have the power to make herself attractive to a certain target, who would then factor that into their negotiations with the actual decision makers. And some women did look at a situation where their marriage was primarily a vehicle for their family to get ahead and decided that they’d do what was in their power to make sure they benefited as well. It’s basically a historical joke that even the most homely stupid embarrassment of a woman could be married off so long as you dowered her heavy enough, whereas women who lacked funds or connections could still make a decent match if she personally was a catch.
The whole dynamic was still pretty messed up and exploitative, but even in a position oppression and exploitation it is possible for an ambitious person to scramble for a bit of power.
And on the bit about people marrying within their own class, Yes people would generally marry another person of their social status but even within that there could be different tiers or just outside factors. Family A has a high title but is broke while family B has a much lower status but is loaded is a pretty cliche match for a reason. Various business interests or political leanings could all make one match more attractive than another despite everyone technically being peers.
And again, the quality of the actual person in question would actually factor into stuff. A dude could be a Duke but be in very poor standing in society due to any number of personal shortcomings, leading to him needing to cast out further afield to find a family for whom a marriage connection to a Duke is enough enticement and outweighs the the social drawbacks of the Duke in question being him. Drastic social mobility wasn’t really a thing, but even when keeping to one’s own class there was a bit of upwards or downward wiggling.