lauralh | that does it (Reply)

I just finished Marriage: a History. Basically what it says, takes the views of marriage in Greek and Roman times, to Middle Ages, to Enlightenment, to Victorian, to the 20s, 30s, 50s etc. Mostly America but the trends for Western Europe are virtually identical, and most of the rest of the literate world is at worst a few decades behind. It clears up a few misconceptions and points out that the idea of a nuclear family is incredibly new, at least in the "man and woman meet, fall in love, marry and have babies and a wonderful life" sense. It doesn't really say where marriage is going now, just points out that things are in a serious state of flux since women were allowed to have their own checking accounts. The author concludes by saying what marriage means to her, personally, after years of being afraid of repeating her parents' mistakes.

But anyway it kind of helped me see where the anti-gay-marriage folks are coming from, while at the same time seeing how incredibly misguided they are. Even Nixon said "gay marriage - that's for the year 2000." Even the most "traditional" American marriage in 2006 has almost nothing in common with any American marriage in 1906, let alone 1806.