Criticism of marriage

"Esposas de Matrimonio" ("Wedding Cuffs"), a wedding ring sculpture expressing the criticism of marriages' effects on individual liberty. Esposas is a play on Spanish, in which the singular form of the word esposa refers to a spouse, and the plural refers to handcuffs.

Criticisms of marriage are proposed reasons arguing against the practical or moral value of the institution of matrimony or particular forms of matrimony. These may include financial risk when measured against the divorce rate, the threat posed to individual liberty and gender equality, and questioning of the necessity to have a relationship sanctioned by government or religious authorities.

Love and lack

According to Dan Moller, an argument called the Bachelor's Argument is that loveless marriages (if love is a marriage's principal reason) are undesirable and many marriages starting happily eventually sour and therefore marriage should be shunned.^[1]

Social planning

Commentators have often been critical of individual local practices and traditions, often leading to changes. Examples include the early Catholic Church's efforts to eliminate concubinage and temporary marriage, the Protestant acceptance of divorce, the abolition in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries of laws against inter-faith and inter-race marriages in western countries, etc.^{[citation needed]}

According to Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian, "marriage diminishes ties to relatives, neighbors, and friends."^[2]

Plato's Republic

A famous early critique of marriage can be found in Plato's Republic, which recommends group marriage.

Philip Kilbride

Philip Kilbride, an American anthropologist, in his book, Plural Marriage for our Time, proposes polygamy as a solution to some of the ills of the American society at large. He argues that plural marriage may serve as a potential alternative for divorce in many cases in order to obviate the damaging impact of divorce on many children. He maintains that many divorces are caused by the rampant extramarital affairs in the American society. According to Kilbride, ending an extramarital affair in a polygamous marriage, rather than in a divorce, is better for the children; "[c]hildren would be better served if family augmentation rather than only separation and dissolution were seen as options." Moreover, he suggests that other groups will also benefit from plural marriage, such as elderly women who face a chronic shortage of men.^[3]

Individualism

The decision not to marry is a presumed consequence of Søren Kierkegaard's philosophy. His well-documented relationship with Regine Olsen is a subject of study in existentialism, as he called off their engagement despite mutual love. Kierkegaard seems to have loved Regine but was unable to reconcile the prospect of marriage with his vocation as a writer and his passionate and introspective Christianity.^{[citation needed]}

A similar argument is found in Franz Kafka's journal entry titled "Summary of all the arguments for and against my marriage":

I must be alone a great deal. What I accomplished was only the result of being alone. ^[4]

As a high-profile couple, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir always expressed opposition to marriage.^[5] Marriage, understood existentially, proposes to join two free selves into one heading, thus denying the freedom, the complete foundation, of each self.

Gender inequality

Their First Quarrel, a 1914 print by Charles Dana Gibson. A criticism of marriage holds that it has ill-effects on the relationships between men and women.

Feminism

According to Gerstel and Sarkisian, domestic violence, isolation, and housework increase for women.^[6]

Some feminists seek the end of formal marriage: "The institution of marriage is the chief vehicle for the perpetuation of the oppression of women; it is through the role of wife that the subjugation of women is maintained."^[7]

Individuals such as Sheila Cronan claim that "[f]reedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage"^[8] and point to historical, legal and social inequalities of wedding, family life and divorce.

Marriage as an institution developed from rape as a practice.—Andrea Dworkin

Early second wave feminist literature specifically opposed to marriage include: ^[9]

• Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (1969)
• Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch (1970)
• Marilyn French, The Women's Room (1977)
• Jessie Bernard, The Future of Marriage (1972)
• Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970)

Men's rights

Some men's rights writers say that marriage is unfavourable to men, particularly the financial consequences of divorce. Father's rights advocates claim that there is a continuing societal bias favoring women as custodial parents in the face of "no-fault" divorce laws and is unjust to men when marriages fail. Some claim that this leads to men avoiding marriage, calling it a "marriage strike".^[10][11] Some groups, such as the Independent Women's Forum, accept this criticism, but argue that they should not be leveled against marriage itself, but dealt with independently.^{[citation needed]}

Economics

According to Gerstel and Sarkisian, lower income correlates with fewer benefits from marriage.^[6]

Health

According to Gerstel and Sarkisian, bad marriages have worse health states, including stress, suicide, hypertension, cancer, and slower wound healing.^[12]

Same-sex couples

In response to the passage of California Proposition 22 and the current controversy regarding same-sex unions in the United States, a group of people have banded together to boycott marriage until all people can legally marry. The argument is that since marriage is not an inclusive institution of society, the members of the boycott refuse to support the institution as it exists.^[13][14]

Criticism of contemporary views on marriage

By the 21st century, the nature of marriage in Western countries—particularly with regard to the significance of procreation and the ease of divorce—had begun to change.^[15]

John Witte, Jr., Professor of Law and director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University, warns that contemporary liberal attitudes toward marriage ultimately will produce a family that is "haphazardly bound together in the common pursuit of selfish ends".^[16]

In From Sacrament to Contract, Witte has argued that John Stuart Mill's secular and contractarian conceptualisation of marriage, based on Enlightenment presuppositions, provided the theoretical justification for the present-day transformation of Anglo-American marriage law.^{[citation needed]}

Romano Cessario, a Catholic Professor of Systematic Theology, in a review of Witte’s book (From Sacrament to Contract) in First Things, suggests that an answer to Nietzche's pessimism (as echoed by Witte) and one that might address the current state of marriage in the West would be to revive the sacramental view of marriage among Christians.^{[citation needed]}

See also

	Gender studies portal
	Sociology portal
	Society portal

• Cohabitation
• Divorce demography
• Free union
• Marriage gap

Religious views

• Christian views on marriage
• Islamic marital jurisprudence
• Buddhist view of marriage
• Marriage in Hinduism
• Jewish views on marriage

References

1. ^ Moller, Dan, An Argument Against Marriage, in Philosophy, vol. 78, issue 303, Jan., 2003, p. 79 ff. (doi:10.1017/S0031819103000056) (author of Princeton Univ.), responded to in Landau, Iddo, An Argument for Marriage, in Philosophy, vol. 79, issue 309, Jul., 2004, p. 475 ff. (commentary) (doi:10.1017/S0031819104000385) (author of Haifa Univ., Israel), the latter responded to in Moller, Dan, The Marriage Commitment—Reply to Landau, in Philosophy, vol. 80, issue 312, Apr., 2005, p. 279 ff. (commentary) (doi:10.1017/S0031819105000288) (author of Princeton Univ.).
2. ^ Gerstel, Naomi, & Natalia Sarkisian, Marriage: The Good, the Bad, and the Greedy, in Contexts, vol. 5, issue 4, Fall 2006, p. 16 (authors researchers).
3. ^ Kilbride, Philip Leroy. Plural Marriage For Our Time. Bergin & Garvey, 1994. ISBN 0-89789-314-X
4. ^ Kafka, Franz. Summary of all the arguments for and against my marriage: From Kafka's Diaries, 12 July 1912...[1][2]
5. ^ Sawyer, Brian. [3]
6. ^ ^{a b} Gerstel, Naomi, et al., Marriage: The Good, the Bad, and the Greedy, op. cit., p. 16.
7. ^ Marlene Dixon, "Why Women's Liberation? Racism and Male Supremacy," at Articles%20Semester%202/8%20Dixon.htm
8. ^ Sheila Cronan, "Marriage," in Koedt, Levine, and Rapone, eds., Radical Feminism, p. 219
9. ^ Why Congress Should Ignore Radical Feminist Opposition to Marriage by Patrick F. Fagan, Robert E. Rector, and Lauren R. Noyes. 1995. The Heritage Foundation
10. ^ Glenn Sacks; Dianna Thompson (2002-07-09). "Have Anti-Father Family Court Policies Led to a Men's Marriage Strike?". ifeminists.com. http://www.ifeminists.com/introduction/editorials/2002/0709a.html. Retrieved 2008-09-30. 
11. ^ Wendy McElroy (2003-08-12). "The Marriage Strike". Fox News - Opinion. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,94415,00.html. Retrieved 2008-09-30. 
12. ^ Gerstel, Naomi, et al., Marriage: The Good, the Bad, and the Greedy, op. cit., p. 17.
13. ^ Eric Rofes, "Life After Knight: A Call for Direct Action and Civil Disobedience" [4]
14. ^ Brandi Sperry, "Support queer friends—boycott marriage" [5]
15. ^ Britannica Online - Marriage [6]
16. ^ Witte Jr., John (1997). From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 0664255434

External links

• Alternatives to Marriage Project