Stupid Social Media Stipulations, The Newest Pre-Nup Fad

Will It Cross Tax Brackets?

The very latest pre-nup clause available to social media-savvy pre-weds is one that will impose financial penalties for infractions such as posting your spouse’s unflattering picture on Twitter.  This actual clause is incorporated into only a few marital contracts so far, but will likely be included in more pre-nups, especially among the rich and famous (or the wanna-be famous) crowds.

Apparently, Russell Brand’s posting of his then forever love Katy Perry’s non-made-up face on social media was the catalyst that led to this now (and wow?) pre-nup clause.

The Social Media pre-nup clause, when included in a standard pre-nup, limits what can be posted to social media: no nude pics, no unflattering photos, no images that could hurt your spouse’s career.  The penalty, a monetary one, is based on things like where the couple will reside, the couple’s earnings and earning potential.

So, a couple living in New York City that earns less than $5 million annually could expect a financial penalty of about $50,000 accessed to the violator for falling afoul of this clause of the marital contract.

Now I ask, is this a “real-world” problem, or not?

In the real world, most of us don’t earn $5 million annually, even with two breadwinners in the family.  So, the financial penalty isn’t likely to be set at $50,000, no matter how horrendous the picture posted might be.  

So, the bottom line is whether or not real people have any recourse for those times when a spouse posts the most butt-ugly image of you online.

I suppose that here in the real world questions will need to be asked:

• Did your spouse believe you were ugly in the picture?  A hard one to prove, as your spouse could use the “Honey, in my eyes, you’re always beautiful” defense.
• Did your spouse know you would be upset by the image?  Another tough one to prove, since your spouse could rely on the “When did you lose your sense of humor” defense.
• Did the image affect your career?  This question could get you somewhere!  (But, is “somewhere” really where you want to go?)  If your boss has NOT seen the offending photo, do you really want to make a big deal of it?  And if your boss hasn’t seen the photo, does it affect your career?

Alas, in real-world scenarios, this pre-nup isn’t likely to gain any traction.  Honestly, when life is a matter of trying to make ends meet, keep the kids on the straight and narrow, and trying to remember to be sweet to your spouse sometimes (so they don’t bug you by getting uptight), what kind of penalty is going to make up for an ill-advised image put out there for all the world to see?  And is it worth all the aggravation when the most you could hope for is a penalty of about $50?

In the final analysis, the Social Media pre-nup clause will not be crossing tax brackets into reality any time soon.

Married people will probably just need to continue to use the DELETE option, or promise to keep such images of ourselves to ourselves for the foreseeable future.

image credit timesofplanet.com