Wishful Thinking...

[Louise]

But at no point does it seem to matter WHO these people are, or what the meaning of the event is, just as long as it vaguely matches the image in her head.

See, I haven't studied the Amy character or the Shamy situation, so I probably shouldn't be commenting. You've given some insight, here.

I would agree that A and B do not see the guys as individuals; they are clay to be molded into Generic Perfect Husband. They're just empty place-holders, just dolls to be manipulated.

Their individuality, their very *personhood* is seen as an obstacle, a flaw to be removed, a defect to be overcome, so that the goal of a conventional and conformist "normal, perfect, happy life" can be achieved.

It's chilling, and sad.

This show's message is about appearances, now. It's about doing things "because that's what normal people do", not for any concrete reason. It doesn't matter who you marry, or why, what's important is the mere fact of being married/coupled, because that makes you socially-acceptable. The trappings of a conventional lifestyle are what's important, not any type of real happiness or self-actualization or self-discovery.

"Real life" is the white picket fence and 2.5 kids and the minivan, and in order to achieve this you must shed the self like a caterpillar shedding its skin. Any resistence to this program is immature and selfish and a sign that you are still "unreconstructed."

And I suppose it's not really the fault of the female characters, since they are just conduits for this bizarrely rigid and retrograde message the writers have decided to put forth...

And it's "for your own good" that you must go through this process of "overcoming" your own personality, your own nature. Cutting away the things that make you special, like cutting off a wart...

Maybe this also applies to the Lenny situation; someone else can chime in, here.

Am I overstating things??