DEAR MISS MANNERS: Relative to the longstanding tradition of men proposing marriage to women, and in this day of slow (but hopefully inexorable) movement towards gender equity, I wonder if the percent of marriage proposals initiated by women has increased. Should it?

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GENTLE READER: Sure, it should. In a sensible world, it would hardly matter which half of a couple suggested getting married.

But there is nothing sensible about what has happened to marriage proposals. In today’s show-offy society, where nothing counts unless it has received the widest possible publicity, marriage proposals have become performance art.

In what seems like a parody of a ritual that exists mostly in the imagination of cartoonists, the proposal requires the gentleman to be on his knees offeri

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