Will you be my husband?

Everybody gets something on Valentine’s Day.

Singles get depressed, secret admirers get brave, lovers get cards, chocolates and sometimes, if the mood is right, hitched.

But with equal opportunity being the new social paradigm, the question now is which party gives the ring.

Some females literally can’t wait to be engaged and pop the question themselves.

Besides finding it emasculating, some men said it might change the dynamic of the relationship.

One recently engaged man said he took the initiative partly because he saw women valuing the occasion more.

“Because I’d feel like that’s my role, you know? I’m the guy. I want to get married and all, but the proposal and the wedding are for the girl,” the senior said, who also decided to remain anonymous. “That’s why women plan the whole thing. It’s their thing, their day. It’s their excuse to go buy dresses and shoes and stuff. You can’t take that away from them.”

His fiancé sure wouldn’t let him.

“I wouldn’t give up my special moment. Not for anything,” said she, also a senior.

The couple said they promised their families to wait until graduation before making their vows.

Although she said she had envisioned the moment for some time prior to being proposed to, she has considered taking it into her own hands.

“Maybe if he was taking too long, but lucky for him, he was right on time,” she said, smiling, looking at him.

“If she did, though?” he asked. “I don’t know. I mean of course I would say yes. I would be happy but I might feel a little weird.”

Another male, who also refused to be identified, said being a traditionalist doesn’t make him a chauvinist.

“Just because there are established roles in the act of proposing, doesn’t mean that those roles will last through the rest of the marriage,” the sophomore said. “Sure, I believe that a man should do the proposing – yes, because of tradition – but I don’t believe that once they do get married, the woman should stay at home and have babies while the man plays breadwinner. Some gender roles are OK, I think. Not everything has to be a feminist movement.”

Dionicia V. Roberson can be reached at tua79958@temple.edu.

Staff writer Steve Wood helped contribute to this report.