No More Marriage

[Lightkeeper]

It has been suggested here that marriage is outdated and no longer necessary. If we did do away with marriage and consenting adults just decided to cohabit, what protects their rights? Without marriage how do you split up property or have tax breaks? What rights would a person have that had devoted many years of their life to the relationship? What would happen upon the death of a mate? Where does the property go? Should we do away with marriage?

 

[Sunstone]

Every generation thinks when it's young that marriage is outdated. And the vast majority of every generation end up married. Sometimes they even like it so much they get married more than once!

In an anthropological sense, marriage (or what an anthropologist would call "pair-bonding") is an inherent trait of our species. It probably evolved even before we ourselves came on the scene -- evolved in our ancestor species. Every culture has some form or another of marriage -- it's ubiquitous. Mere philosophies are not going to abolish it.

 

[Runt]

But that is the thing Lightkeeper was saying... pair-bonding is natural. So why can't we just pair bond? Why must we "get married", taking one another's last names, getting tax breaks, etc. There are some practical aspects to marriage... the right of both parents to have a say in how children are raised, the ability to split up property upon the dissolution of the marriage... etc. But I personally think marriage should be for anyone... a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man, or even a group of consenting adults. The idea that marriage must be an institution in which a man and a woman are legally bound together and are expected to have children (even if they chose not to) is stupid and medieval. I don't think we should get rid of marriage, but I do think we should change the way we look at it. It is a decision between consenting adults to become a legal unit because they love each other and want to form a family (and that family does NOT have to include children! It just has to be people who want to live together, share responsibilities, support one another, etc.)

 

[Ardhanariswar]

hmm. ya. simplified it down. makes sense. i would do that. an equal partnership. i still like that fairy tale stuff, its facinating and just lovely, like a childhood dream to get married to a prince charming. hehe. im soo naive. it cant be that wrong to dream the dream.