Oct 28, · In , the Mexican Supreme Court issued a ruling making it much easier for gay and lesbian couples to wed. The decision gave same-sex couples the right to seek a court injunction against state laws banning gay marriage; although it did not technically legalize same-sex unions nationwide, it was a major step in that direction FindLaw Legal Blogs. FindLaw's Legal Blogs bring you the latest legal news and information. Both consumers and legal professionals can find answers, insights, and updates in the blogs listed below Sep 29, · In a sweeping national referendum and with a nearly two-thirds majority of the vote, Switzerland legalized same-sex marriage on Sept. According to results from the Swiss federal chancellery, % of the Swiss electorate voted “yes” to marriage for all to % who voted “no” with % of eligible voters participating. Switzerland is the last [ ]
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Criticisms of marriage are arguments against the practical essays against gay marriage moral value of the institution of matrimony or particular forms of matrimony.
These have included the effects that marriage has on individual liberty, equality between the sexes, the relation between marriage and violence, philosophical questions about how much control can a government have over its population, the amount of control a person has over another, the financial risk when measured against the divorce rate, and questioning of the necessity to have a relationship sanctioned by government or religious authorities.
Feminist activists often point to historical, legal and social inequalities of weddingfamily life and divorce in their criticism of marriage. Sheila Cronan claimed that the freedom for women "cannot be won without the abolition of marriage. Andrea Dworkin said that marriage as an institution, developed from rape, as a practice.
Early Second Wave feminist literature in the West, specifically opposed to marriage include personalities such as Kate Millett Sexual Politics, Germaine Greer The Female Eunuchessays against gay marriage,Marilyn French The Women's Room, Jessie Bernard The Future of Marriage, and Shulamith Firestone The Dialectic of Sex : The Case for Feminist Revolution In BC, Plato criticised marriage in the Republic.
He stated that the idea of marriage was a "natural enemy" of the "commonwealth," aiming for its own higher unity. In the industrial age a number of notable women writers including Sarah FieldingMary Haysand Mary Wollstonecraftraised complaints that marriage in their own societies could be characterized as little more than a state of "legal prostitution" with underprivileged women signing in to support themselves. According to Dan Moller's "Bachelor's Argument", modern marriage can be compared to the act of "forging professional credentials.
Commentators have often been critical of individual local practices and essays against gay marriage, leading to historical changes. Examples include the early Catholic Church 's efforts to eliminate concubinage and temporary marriagethe Protestant acceptance of divorceand the abolition of laws against inter-faith and inter-race marriages in the western countries.
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 existentialismas 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. 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.
As a high-profile couple, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir always expressed opposition to marriage. Brian Sawyer says "Marriage, understood existentially, proposes to join two free selves into one heading, thus denying the freedom, the complete foundation, of each self. In response to the passage of California Proposition 22 and the current controversy regarding same-sex unions in the United Statesa 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, essays against gay marriage.
In the West, cohabitation and births outside marriage are becoming more common. In the United Statesconservative and religious commentators are highly critical of this trend. They are also often critical of present-day marriage law and the ease of divorce. John Witte, Jr. Critics of marriage argue that it is an institution which contributes to the maintaining essays against gay marriage traditional gender roles, thus preventing women from achieving social equality, essays against gay marriage, and reinforcing the idea that women exist to serve men, which in turn increases the abuse of women.
They argue essays against gay marriage marriage reinforces the traditional paradigm of male-female interaction: subordination of the woman to the man in exchange of subsistence. According to Sheila Jeffreys "the traditional elements of marriage have not completely disappeared in western societies, even in the case of employed, highly educated and well paid professional women".
Even in Western countries, married women "feel they have no choice but to stay and endure and may be 'loving to survive". Some commentators [ who? They also criticize the romanticized image that marriage is given in films and romance novels. Some critics argue that people cannot form an objective image of what marriage is if they are from early childhood indoctrinated into believing marriage is desirable and necessary.
Critics of marriage argue that this institution represents a form of state sponsored discrimination, in a generalized way against people who do not marry, essays against gay marriage, and in a particular way against certain racial or ethnic groups who are less likely to marry and more likely to have children outside marriage, such as African Americans in the US - by stigmatizing such individuals, presenting their lifestyle as abnormal and denying them rights.
The idea that married families and their children are superior was and remains a key tool of anti-Black racism. Black families have consistently been portrayed as pathological and criminal in academic research and social policy based on marriage rates, most famously in the Moynihan Report.
What is it about modern coupledom that makes policing another person's behaviour a synonym for intimacy? Or is it something about the conditions of modern life itself: is domesticity a venue for control because most of us have so little of it elsewhere? Then there's the fundamental premise of monogamous marriage: that mutual desire can and will last throughout a lifetime.
And if it doesn't? Well apparently you're just supposed to give up on sex, since waning desire for your mate is never an adequate defence for 'looking elsewhere'. At the same time, let's not forget how many booming businesses and new technologies have arisen to prop up sagging marital desire.
Consider all the investment opportunities afforded: Viagra, couples pornography, therapy. If upholding monogamy in the absence of desire weren't a social dictate, how many enterprises would immediately fail? A criticism of marriage is that it may lead to the social isolation of a person, who is often expected to diminish other relations with friends, relatives or colleagues, in order to be fully dedicated to their spouse.
Julie Bindel writes that: "Maybe those at the most risk of ending up alone are not the folk who never marry, but rather the people who chuck all their eggs in one basket. Some critics assert that marriage will always remain a symbolic institution signifying the subordination of women to men.
Clare Chambers points to the sexist traditions surrounding marriage and weddings; she writes: [23]. Symbolically, the white wedding asserts that women's ultimate dream and purpose is to marry, and remains replete with sexist imagery: the white dress denoting the bride's virginity and emphasising the importance of her appearance ; essays against gay marriage minister essays against gay marriage the husband "you may now kiss the bride" rather than the bride herself giving permission, or indeed initiating or at least equally participating in the act of kissing ; the reception at which, traditionally, all the speeches are given by men; the wife surrendering her own name and taking her husband's.
The history of marriage in relation to women makes it an institution that some critics argue cannot and should not be accepted in the 21st century; to do so would mean to trivialize the abuses it was responsible for. Some critics argue that it is impossible to dissociate marriage from its past. Clare Chambers argues that:. it is impossible to escape the history of the institution. Its status as a tradition ties its current meaning to its past". A documentary in Ireland presented the story of elderly women who described their experiences with repeated acts of rape in marriage and the children born from these rapes, [ when?
Marital rape in Ireland was made illegal inand divorce was legalized in Violence related to female virginity is considered a problem. In many parts of the world it is socially expected for the bride to be a essays against gay marriage if the husband has sex with his wife after marriage and she does not bleed it is common for a woman to not bleed when she has sex for the first time [25]this can end in extreme violence, including an honor killing.
The common view of marital life as "private" and outside the sphere of public intervention allows violence to flourish, essays against gay marriage. Elizabeth Brake writes that ""privacy" protects unequal divisions of domestic labor, essays against gay marriage, domestic violence, and exclusion of health coverage for abortion and contraception.
Marriage has been criticized in its complicity of wives' economic dependence on husbands due to the gendered division of labour and that women's work typically pays less than men's work.
Women are more likely to downgrade or drop out of their careers to assist in child rearing or when their career conflicts with their husband's. Absent a career, women become dependent on legally granted marriage benefits such as a husband's health insurance, and are thus increasingly dependent essays against gay marriage their husband. This dependence can facilitate abuse because the marriage becomes economically difficult to leave.
In some conservative cultures, married women are not allowed to leave home without the consent of the husband - a essays against gay marriage that is supported by the law itself in many of these countries. For instance, in Yemen marriage regulations state that a wife must obey her husband and must not leave home without his permission. Historically, in many cultures marriage has been used to regulate sexuality, rather than consent regulating it. That is, non-marital sex was banned regardless of consent, essays against gay marriage, while marital sex was an enforceable obligation.
From the midth century onward, changing social norms have led to, among other things, the decriminalization of consensual non-marital sex and the criminalization of marital rape. These changes are not universal around the world, essays against gay marriage, and in many countries they have not occurred.
For instance, sex outside marriage is still punishable by death in some jurisdictions. InAmnesty International's Secretary General stated that "It is unbelievable that in the twenty-first century some countries are condoning child marriage and marital rape while others are outlawing abortion, sex outside marriage and same-sex sexual activity — even punishable by death.
In various places, men have sexual authority over their wives, in law and in practice. The men decide when and where to have sex, and wives have no power to stop unwanted sex. In certain countries marital rape is legal, and even where it is illegal it is infrequently reported or prosecuted. Therefore, marriage leads to a situation which allows not only forced sex, but also forced pregnancyand in some of these countries pregnancy and childbirth remain dangerous because of lack of adequate medical care.
The effects of sexual violence inside marriage are exacerbated by the practice of child marriage ; in an 8-year-old Yemeni girl died from internal bleeding after she was raped by her year-old new husband. Lack of economic opportunity means that wives have no choice but to "allow sexual access to their bodies essays against gay marriage return for subsistence".
Another issue is the question on why relations that are or are believed to be sexual are favored in law with regard to legal protections and promotion, and those that are not or are believed not to be are not. This is especially the case as marriage rates are quite low in many Western countries, and the state has been criticized for ingoing other living arrangements that are not sexual relations; and there have been increased objections to legal concepts such as consummation or adultery that critics argue do not belong in modern law, essays against gay marriage.
A criticism of marriage is that it gives essays against gay marriage state an undue power and control over the private lives of the citizens. The statutes governing marriage are drafted by the state, and not by the couples who marry under those laws. The laws may, at any time, be changed by the state without the consent or even knowledge of the married people, essays against gay marriage.
The terms derived from the principles of institutionalized marriage represent the interests of the governments.
Critics of marriage argue that it is an institution based on control, domination and possession, and that attempting to exercise control over another person's life is immoral and dangerous, and should not be encouraged by the state. Claudia Cardprofessor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writes that: [39]. The legal rights of access that married partners have to each other's persons, property, and lives makes it all but impossible for a spouse to defend herself or himselfor to be protected against torture, rape, battery, stalking, mayhem, or murder by the other spouse Legal marriage thus enlists state support for conditions essays against gay marriage to murder and mayhem.
The United Nations General Assembly defines "violence against women" as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physicalsexual or mental harm or suffering to women, essays against gay marriage threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of libertywhether occurring in public or in private life. Critics of marriage argue that it is complicit in the mistreatment and subjugation of women across the world. Common concerns raised today focus on the health and general well-being of women, who, in parts of the world, essays against gay marriage, have virtually no protection in law or in practice, against domestic violence within marriage.
It is also nearly impossible for women there to get out of abusive relationships. Opponents of legal marriage contend that it encourages violence against womenboth through practices carried out within a marriage such as beating and rape inside marriage - which are legal in some countries and tolerated in many moreand through acts related to marital customs such as honor killings for refusing arranged marriages ; forcing rape victims to marry their rapist, marriage by abduction ; or executions for sex outside marriage.
In various countries married men have authority over their wives. For instance, Yemeni marriage regulations state that a wife must obey her husband and must not leave home without his permission.
The criminal code states that there is no crime if an act is committed while exercising a legal right. Examples of legal rights include: essays against gay marriage punishment of a wife by her husband, the disciplining by parents and teachers of children under their authority within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom", essays against gay marriage.
Famous anarchist Emma Goldman wrote how marriage was not a love pact but an economic agreement that restricts men's and mainly women's freedoms.
She criticized how wives were surrendered freedoms permanently for the sake of marriage, and how sexuality and child rearing outside of marriage is shamed.
Oral Arguments against Same-Sex Marriage (2006)
, time: 1:11:22International News: Switzerland passes marriage equality — Philadelphia Gay News
Aug 31, · By Roxane Gay. Essays Set against the backdrop of the war on drugs, Bill Duke’s boldly stylized thriller stages a meeting between the idea Dec 21, · The Supreme Court ruling earlier this year legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide has continued to raise questions about how the decision will affect religious groups – especially those that remain opposed to allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. The court’s ruling makes clear that clergy and religious organizations are not obliged to perform same-sex marriages, but some groups have FindLaw Legal Blogs. FindLaw's Legal Blogs bring you the latest legal news and information. Both consumers and legal professionals can find answers, insights, and updates in the blogs listed below
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