Heterosexual Love Is Destroying The Institution of Marriage

Sorry — I had to post the whole piece; it’s not available on-line. It’s so good that it was worth the typing effort.

From The Week Magazine; July 22, 2005 issue:

Social conservatives are right about one thing, said author Stephanie Coontz in the New York Times. "Marriage as we have known it for 5,000 years" is in big trouble. But it’s not same-sex unions that’s posing the threat. It’s heterosexuals who have spearheaded the revolution. Until fairly recently, marriage was an "economic and political institution" whose primary function was to provide men with labor and heirs. Wives were essentially the property of their husbands, consigned by God to follow the male will. But more than 200 years ago, this traditional view of marriage began to unravel. During the Enlightenment, when Americans and Europeans undertook "the pursuit of happiness," romantic love assumed new importance. The advent of birth control in the 19th century began to transform sex from a strict, reproductive function to a source of pleasure, putting still more emphasis on marital compatibility. But it was the social changes of the 20th century that really undermined traditional marriage. Feminism freed women to pursue careers and income of their own, and they were no longer dependent on men for survival. Marriage evolved into a "voluntary love relationship," with divorce as a default option if it went sour. Like it or not, that’s what marriage is today, and "it is simply magical thinking to believe that by banning gay and lesbian marriage, we will turn back the clock."