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| The effects of sexual violence inside marriage are exacerbated by the practice of ]; in 2013 an 8-years-old ]i girl died from internal bleeding after she was raped by her 40-years-old new husband.<ref>http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/09/10/child_bride_8_dies_of_internal_bleeding_on_wedding_night_says_yemeni_activist.html</ref> Sheila Jeffreys argues that the very institution of marriage is based on the idea that heterosexual sex is the absolute right of the man and the absolute duty of the woman; that men are entitled to demand sex on their terms and to coerce sex, and women are not allowed to ever refuse it. Lack of economic opportunity means that wives have no choice but to "allow sexual access to their bodies in return for subsistence".<ref>http://books.google.ro/books?id=9mlFgjEBYWYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+industrial+vagina&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BVQ7UqTUN-Tl4gTIoYGADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the%20industrial%20vagina&f=false</ref> | The effects of sexual violence inside marriage are exacerbated by the practice of ]; in 2013 an 8-years-old ]i girl died from internal bleeding after she was raped by her 40-years-old new husband.<ref>http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/09/10/child_bride_8_dies_of_internal_bleeding_on_wedding_night_says_yemeni_activist.html</ref> Sheila Jeffreys argues that the very institution of marriage is based on the idea that heterosexual sex is the absolute right of the man and the absolute duty of the woman; that men are entitled to demand sex on their terms and to coerce sex, and women are not allowed to ever refuse it. Lack of economic opportunity means that wives have no choice but to "allow sexual access to their bodies in return for subsistence".<ref>http://books.google.ro/books?id=9mlFgjEBYWYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+industrial+vagina&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BVQ7UqTUN-Tl4gTIoYGADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the%20industrial%20vagina&f=false</ref> | ||
| The common view of marital life as "private" and outside the sphere of public intervention allows violence to flourish. Elizabeth Brake writes that "“privacy” protects unequal divisions of domestic labor, domestic violence, and exclusion of health coverage for abortion and contraception."<ref>] writes that police often "ignore complaints of domestic violence because they do not want to “intrude” on the private realm of the married couple".<ref>http://books.google.ro/books?id=J84NS0t9EC8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=just+marriage&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XWg7UuDzFcyOswa2nIDoCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=just%20marriage&f=false Just Marriage, by Mary Lyndon Shanley, 2004]</ref> | The common view of marital life as "private" and outside the sphere of public intervention allows violence to flourish. Elizabeth Brake writes that "“privacy” protects unequal divisions of domestic labor, domestic violence, and exclusion of health coverage for abortion and contraception."<ref>] writes that police often "ignore complaints of domestic violence because they do not want to “intrude” on the private realm of the married couple".<ref></ref> | ||
| ==Statutory== | ==Statutory== | ||
Revision as of 19:10, 23 September 2013
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.
History
An early critique of marriage, although perceived as controversial by later commentators, can be found already in the Republic by Plato, who conceived the idea of marriage to be a "natural enemy" of the "commonwealth" aiming for its own higher unity. In the industrial age a number of notable women writers including Sarah Fielding, Mary Hays, and Mary Wollstonecraft, raised 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. Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian wrote that marriage is also found to be often at odds with community, diminishing ties to relatives, neighbors, and friends. According to Dan Moller's "Bachelor's Argument", modern marriage can be compared to the act of "forging professional credentials." Over 40 percent of them fail and therefore should be avoided similar to any high-risk venture.
Commentators have often been critical of individual local practices and traditions, leading to historical changes. Examples include the early Catholic Church's efforts to eliminate concubinage and temporary marriage, the Protestant acceptance of divorce, and the abolition of laws against inter-faith and inter-race marriages in the western countries.
Martin Luther once said: "I detest divorce so much, that I prefer bigamy rather than divorce." Subsequently, a bigamist marriage was performed with his written consent in 1539 inspired by the Hebrew Bible. Notably, Luther's own wife detested his views in turn. "Before I put up with that, I would rather go back into the convent" she said. An American anthropologist Philip Kilbride, in his book Plural Marriage for our Time, also proposed polygamy as a solution to some of the ills of the American society at large. New research shows that in the U.S. the chances of divorce "increase dramatically as a result of affairs." Kilbride argued that plural marriage (as in Mormonism) could serve as a potential alternative for divorce in order to obviate the damaging impact of divorce on many children. According to Kilbride, ending an extramarital affair in a plural marriage, rather than in a divorce, could possibly be better for the children. He suggested also that other age groups could benefit from it, such as elderly women.
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.
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. Marriage, understood existentially, proposes to join two free selves into one heading, thus denying the freedom, the complete foundation, of each self.
Since 2000 onwards, several Western countries have legalized same sex marriage. Some supporters of same-sex marriage argue that, apart from offering rights to gays and lesbians, the legalization of same-sex marriage might also help women in general, by dissociating marriage from traditional gender roles and stereotypical expectations of subordination of the wife to the husband, and therefore might improve the status of married women.
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.
In the West, cohabitation and births outside marriage are becoming more common. In the United States, conservative 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., Professor of Law and director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University, argues that contemporary liberal attitudes toward marriage produce a family that is "haphazardly bound together in the common pursuit of selfish ends" exactly as prophecized by Nietzsche. In his From Sacrament to Contract, Witte has argued that John Stuart Mill's secular and contractarian model of marriage, developed during the Enlightenment, provided the theoretical justification for the present-day transformation of Anglo-American marriage law, promoting unqualified "right to divorce" on plaintiff's demand, one-time division of property, and child custody without regard for marital misconduct. A Catholic professor Romano Cessario, in a review of Witte’s book published in an ecumenical journal the First Things, suggested that a solution to the current crisis of marriage in the West, could come from the possible revival of the sacramental marriage among Christians, thus counterbalancing Nietzsche's pessimism (as echoed by Witte).
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. This was done at a time when marital rape was not criminalized. Contraception, abortion and divorce were all illegal. The marriage bar restricting married womens' employment outside home was in force. Marital rape in Ireland was made illegal in 1990, and divorce was legalized in 1996.
Violence against women
Further information: Forced marriage, Child marriage, Honor killing, Stoning, Marital rape, Dowry, and Bride price
Critics of marriage argue that marriage encourages abuse, exploitation and subordination of women. Common concerns raised today focus on the health and general well-being of women, who, in parts of the world, 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. Abusive practices are maintained and exacerbated by ideologies of ownership and entitlement in some cultures and the well-being of women is undermined by a powerful symbolic act of subordination. According to Gerstel and Sarkisian, domestic violence, isolation, and housework tend to increase for women who sign marriage contracts. Those with lower income draw even fewer benefits from it. Bad marriages, according to Gerstel and Sarkisian, result in higher levels of stress, suicide, hypertension, cancer, and slower wound healing in women.
Critics of marriage argue that it is an institution which incites violence against women, both through acts perpetrated inside marriage (such as beating and rape inside marriage - which are tolerated in some countries and also legal in some countries) and through acts related to marriage traditions and customs (such as honor killings for refusing arranged marriages; forcing unmarried rape victims to marry their rapist/marriage by abduction; or stoning for sex outside marriage). In some parts of the world, the extreme stigma cast on women who have reached a certain age and are still unmarried often leads these women to suicide. Suicide is also a common response of women caught in abusive marriages with no possibility of leaving those marriages. Women who are faced with the prospect of forced marriage may commit suicide. Violence and trafficking related to payment of dowry and bride price are also problems. Dowry deaths especially occur in South Asia, and acid throwing is also a result of disputes related to dowry conflicts.
In various countries women lose nearly all rights upon entering marriage. Yemeni marriage regulations state that a wife must obey her husband and must not leave home without his permission.
In Iraq husbands have a legal right to punish their wives. The criminal code states that there is no crime if an act is committed while exercising a legal right. Examples of legal rights include: "The 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".
Critics of marriage argue that it is an institution which contributes to the maintaining of traditional gender roles, thus preventing women from achieving social equality, and reinforcing the idea that women exist to serve men, which in turn increases the abuse of women. They argue that 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".She argues that even such women remain in abusive marriages out of fear of leaving and out of duty. Even in Western countries, married women "feel they have no choice but to stay and endure and may be 'loving to survive".
Sexuality in marriage is also an area of concern. Women in various places cannot (in law or in practice) stop unwanted sex. In some countries marital rape is not recognized as a crime. Even where it is illegal it is very rarely prosecuted. A number of these women also cannot stop unwanted pregnancy, because in various countries modern contraception is not available, and in some countries married women need legal permission from the husband to use contraception (and even in countries where the husband's consent is not legally required in practice it is asked for), and abortion is illegal or restricted, and in some countries married women need the consent of husband for abortion. Therefore marriage leads to a situation which allows not only forced sex, but also forced pregnancy, and 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 2013 an 8-years-old Yemeni girl died from internal bleeding after she was raped by her 40-years-old new husband. Sheila Jeffreys argues that the very institution of marriage is based on the idea that heterosexual sex is the absolute right of the man and the absolute duty of the woman; that men are entitled to demand sex on their terms and to coerce sex, and women are not allowed to ever refuse it. Lack of economic opportunity means that wives have no choice but to "allow sexual access to their bodies in return for subsistence".
The common view of marital life as "private" and outside the sphere of public intervention allows violence to flourish. Elizabeth Brake writes that "“privacy” protects unequal divisions of domestic labor, domestic violence, and exclusion of health coverage for abortion and contraception." Mary Lyndon Shanley writes that police often "ignore complaints of domestic violence because they do not want to “intrude” on the private realm of the married couple".
Statutory
A criticism of marriage is that it gives the 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. 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 Card, professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writes that:
- "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 himself), or to be protected against torture, rape, battery, stalking, mayhem, or murder by the other spouse... Legal marriage thus enlists state support for conditions conducive to murder and mayhem."
Cultural attitudes relating to marriage
Some commentators criticize government authorities for promotion of marriage. 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.
The feminist approach
Feminist activists often point to historical, legal and social inequalities of wedding, family life and divorce in their criticism of marriage. Sheila Cronan claimed that the freedom for women "cannot be won without the abolition of marriage." "The institution of marriage – wrote Marlene Dixon of the Democratic Workers Party – 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". Andrea Dworkin said that marriage as an institution, developed from rape, as a practice.
Early second wave of feminist literature in the West, specifically opposed to marriage include personalities such as 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), and Shulamith Firestone (The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution, 1970).
Men's rights movement
Some men's rights writers say that marriage in the West is unfavourable to men as well, particularly in the financial consequences of divorce. For example, the father's rights advocates point out that there is a continuing societal bias favoring women as custodial parents in the face of "no-fault" divorce laws, and that divorce is routinely unjust to men when the marriages fail. Some claim that this trend leads to men avoiding marriage, calling it a "marriage strike".
See also
2
Religious views
2References
- ^ Sue Asscher, and David Widger (2008), The Republic by Plato. The Project Gutenberg EBook. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
- Jessica Spector (2006), Prostitution and Pornography. Stanford University Press, p. 51. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
- Naomi Gerstel & Natalia Sarkisian, Marriage: The Good, the Bad, and the Greedy, in The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the Twenty-First Century by Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz.
- Dan Moller, An Argument Against Marriage in Minimizing Marriage by Elizabeth Brake; also 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.).
- ^ Philip L. Kilbride, Douglas R Page (Aug 31, 2012). "The Monogamous Ideal in Western Tradition and America". Plural Marriage for Our Times: A Reinvented Option?. ABC-CLIO. pp. 14–22. ISBN 0313384789. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- Robert Hughes, Jr. (06/09/2012). "Does Extramarital Sex Cause Divorce?". The Huffington Post.com. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Kafka, Franz. Summary of all the arguments for and against my marriage: From Kafka's Diaries, 12 July 1912...
- Sawyer, Brian.
- http://www.marriagequality.ie/download/pdf/feminism_paper_final_01.05.pdf
- Eric Rofes, "Life After Knight: A Call for Direct Action and Civil Disobedience"
- Brandi Sperry, "Support queer friends—boycott marriage"
- Witte Jr., John (1997). From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 0-664-25543-4
- John Witte (2012). "From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition". p. 215. ISBN 0664234321. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
- Jane Williams-Hogan (Bryn Athyn College) (June 11–13, 2009). "Marriage in Christian History". Marginalizing Heterosexual Monogamous Marriage. CESNUR. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) - http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-raped-for-years-many-older-women-can-only-now-tell-their-stories-407095-Apr2012/
- ^ The Need to Abolish Marriage. Feminism & Psychology, May 2004.
- ^ Feminism Liberalism and Marriage. University of Cambridge, 2010.
- ^ Gerstel, Naomi, et al., Marriage: The Good, the Bad, and the Greedy, op. cit., p. 16.
- Gerstel, Naomi, et al., Marriage: The Good, the Bad, and the Greedy, op. cit., p. 17.
- http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/38628_7.pdf
- http://www.stopvaw.org/uploads/tajikistan_3_6_07_layout_-_final_mc.pdf
- https://www.hu.liu.se/ike/forskning/genus_medicin/vaw_global_network/publication/ruchira/1.54378/SpousalViolenceAgainstWomenandSuicidalIdeationinBangladesh2008.pdf
- http://www.iwraw-ap.org/aboutus/pdf/FPvaw.pdf
- http://www.dw.de/afghan-women-escape-marriage-through-suicide/a-16750044
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/3071963.stm
- http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/210544.htm
- http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/women-s-rights/violence-against-women/violence-against-women-information
- http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/ngos/Yemen%27s%20darkside-discrimination_Yemen_HRC101.pdf
- http://law.case.edu/saddamtrial/documents/Iraqi_Penal_Code_1969.pdf Iraqi Penal Code, Paragraph 41
- http://books.google.ro/books?id=9mlFgjEBYWYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+industrial+vagina&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BVQ7UqTUN-Tl4gTIoYGADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the%20industrial%20vagina&f=false
- http://books.google.ro/books?id=9mlFgjEBYWYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+industrial+vagina&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BVQ7UqTUN-Tl4gTIoYGADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the%20industrial%20vagina&f=false The Political Vagina:The political economy of the global sex trade. See Graham et al, 1994
- http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/09/10/child_bride_8_dies_of_internal_bleeding_on_wedding_night_says_yemeni_activist.html
- http://books.google.ro/books?id=9mlFgjEBYWYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+industrial+vagina&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BVQ7UqTUN-Tl4gTIoYGADg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=the%20industrial%20vagina&f=false
- [http://books.google.ro/books?id=PyIdfgo5etAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=ro&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Just Marriage, by Mary Lyndon Shanley, 2004
- http://pol285.blog.gustavus.edu/files/2009/08/Card_Against_Marriage.pdf
- http://books.google.ro/books?id=1YR8plajhwIC&pg=PA257&lpg=PA257&dq=%22The+legal+rights+of+access+that+married+partners+have+to+each+other+persons%22&source=bl&ots=8oGL8t9imS&sig=hOGnqAm_MO0DB2_nJwNOAlELAWc&hl=ro&sa=X&ei=gCEzUpeVBJHAswaZuYHQAw&ved=0CFgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22The%20legal%20rights%20of%20access%20that%20married%20partners%20have%20to%20each%20other%20persons%22&f=false
- http://www.publiceye.org/jeans_report/marriage-promotion-part-2.pdf
- http://government.arts.cornell.edu/assets/faculty/docs/smith/nopromomarriage.23feb.pdf
- Sheila Cronan, "Marriage," in Koedt, Levine, and Rapone, eds., Radical Feminism, p. 219
- Marlene Dixon, Articles%20Semester%202/8%20Dixon.htm "Why Women's Liberation? Racism and Male Supremacy."
- Why Congress Should Ignore Radical Feminist Opposition to Marriage by Patrick F. Fagan, Robert E. Rector, and Lauren R. Noyes. 1995. The Heritage Foundation
- Glenn Sacks (2002-07-09). "Have Anti-Father Family Court Policies Led to a Men's Marriage Strike?". ifeminists.com. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Wendy McElroy (2003-08-12). "The Marriage Strike". Fox News - Opinion. Retrieved 2008-09-30.