Sexist wedding traditions

People get so offended when you question heterosexual wedding "traditions" (since none of these things are actually traditions, I’m using quotes because that’s what everyone calls them in their defense).

Ever since I was little, I never understood why so many women want their fathers to "give" them to another man, or why women wear engagement rings but men don’t, or why men still ask their girlfriend’s father for her hand in marriage as some sort of "traditional" formality. I have big problems with all of these things, but to say so is like burning a flag, spitting on the bible, and running over a puppy all at once.

All of these "traditions" seem so obviously and fundamentally BAD, yet smart, educated, otherwise liberal women embrace them and hold onto them as if they are critical elements to the success of their relationships.

I was at an engagement party recently, and it came up in conversation that the boyfriend had asked the girlfriend’s father for permission before he proposed. There was no real reason to do it- the couple had already mutually agreed to get married and the father would have no reason to disapprove of the marriage- but the girlfriend had told the boyfriend that her father would like it. Another married couple in the room shared their similar story about how the man had done it because he knew it would make the woman’s father happy. I said that it would indeed make my father very happy as well, and everyone smiled and nodded with me until I added "but I would never allow it." At that point I suddenly became a horrible, horrible person, and I received the usual response "but it’s just a tradition!"