I’ve figured out the key to success. Ladies, instead of wasting your time and money getting a college education so you have the opportunity to excel in a career that you love, and provide for yourself and your family ‘ just marry someone rich!

You are probably wondering how I managed to come up with such a brilliant idea, right? I was struck with the idea after watching every season of ‘Flavor of Love’ and other reality television shows which exhibit women in their mid-20s competing for the love of a celebrity past his prime. Hip hop songs that promote a female’s dependency on a man and his money also helped to send the message home.

It wasn’t until I watched the YouTube video ‘Black Dating in a Hip Hop Society’ that I realized not only the kind of message media outlets are sending to young women, but also the way in which it is done. In the video, a woman tells her boyfriend that she needs a ‘boss, a baller or a man like Lil Wayne.’

Rather than appreciate her relationship with her boyfriend who attends graduate school, she dreams of dumping him and upgrading to someone more affluent and world-renowned.

As I watched the video, I couldn’t help but think how the woman’s thoughts reflected those of many modern-day women. Society has brainwashed them into believing that the formula to upward mobility, financial stability and comfortable living does not include a college education or getting a job, but involves latching yourself onto a football player or anyone else in a position of wealth and prestige.

Women and young girls are now being instructed to drop their textbooks and slip into their stilettos so that they may have the chance of attracting a basketball player.

The message surrounds us through television, music and film. How many reality television shows have there been with approximately 20 young, overly-tanned women parading around in skimpy outfits and excessive makeup, desperate to earn the affection of some washed-up celebrity? How many ‘Housewives’ programs are on television that display the lives of women who live off the wealth of their husbands, boyfriends or baby’s fathers, who are athletes or artists?

The greatest culprit of enforcing the notion that women cannot survive without the financial support of men is music. Hip hop songs are infamous not only for degrading women, but also for promoting the concept that women require men with wealth. In hip hop, the ideal man has multiple cars and credit cards and a flock of women trailing behind, eager to be with him so that they too can enjoy the glamorous life.

The phrase ‘make it rain’ in hip hop music is a prime example of the way in which the message is being communicated. Although the phrase refers specifically to giving money to a stripper, in a broader sense the phrase implies that men are the only ones who possess wealth and that they alone have the privilege to shower women with their money. It imposes the view on young women that they are incapable of earning riches and living a comfortable life on their own, and so the only way to have access to the lifestyle they want is through a man.

Doesn’t this new-found dependency of women on men undermine all the years fought for women’s rights? What was the point of those before us fighting for equal opportunity in the workplace and the right for women to be seen as equals with their male coworkers?

Where are the female politicians, business women, doctors and athletes? In order to counteract this message, which undermines the importance of financial independence and education, there needs to be more women in positions of power and status reassuring young women that they do not need to rely on anyone else but themselves to acquire all the things that they desire.

Ladies, why depend on a man to save you, when you have all the resources available to save yourselves?