What Is a Good Marriage?
Marriage is defined as any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities. The concept of marriage has changed drastically over time, the debate is whether or not the definition of a good marriage has changed. The interpretation of a good marriage has changed over the years because of interracial marriage, gay marriage, and women’s equality; but, the traditional notion of marriage has not deteriorated, only reconditioned to match modern society. Whether people agree or not, the face of marriage has changed. Nowadays, there …show more content…
The husband was in charge of the household and everyone in it, and the wife is at home taking care of the children. As of the twenty-first century, women’s rights have improved tremendously, trophy wives are no longer the norm and women are not expected to be housewives. Emma Goldman, an anarchist and feminist, wrote an essay, Marriage and Love, in 1910 detailing her assumption that marriage is nothing more than an economic arrangement that only benefits the man. “If, however, a woman’s premium is a husband, she pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, ‘until death doth part.’ Moreover, the marriage insurance condemns her to life-long dependency, to parasitism, to complete uselessness, individual as well as social” (Goldman 241). Goldman believes that women have nothing to gain from marriage, it is only a crutch to support her economically. After a woman is married, she is no longer her own person who gets to choose her life. Now she must obey her husband and be a stay at home wife and mother. Women’s equality has changed for the better since Goldman’s day. In contrast to her day, women can work full time jobs, have hobbies and friends. Men can be stay at home dads, while the woman provides for the family. Furthermore, it may be two mothers or two fathers that are both providing and taking care of the children. Overall, the definition has changed so that …show more content…
Marriage today, excluding same-sex couples, entails that the mother usually stays at home with their children while they are young, or work a part-time job. Whereas they were forced to do that in the past, now mothers have the option to work, stay home with the children, or do both. In Mona Charen’s article Modern Family?, she emphasizes the fact that the traditional marriage is still intact only altered, if the definition were broader it would apply to most married couples. She believes that if one spouse works while the other stays at home to care for the children or work part time, that is more realistic (224). Charen points out that mothers prefer staying at home not working, or working part-time. On the other hand, many couples do not stay together. So, there is joint custody or just one parent raising children. In my experience, I was raised by my mother and my father was not involved at all. Charen would consider this untraditional, but, it is all I know and I prefered being raised in that way. Charen is correct in saying that traditional marriages are not dead, there are several couples who have that marriages, but to say that two parents raising children is the only traditional type of marriage is unrealistic. The definition of a good marriage is being looked at too narrowly, by expanding what a traditional marriage
Marriage is defined as any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities. The concept of marriage has changed drastically over time, the debate is whether or not the definition of a good marriage has changed. The interpretation of a good marriage has changed over the years because of interracial marriage, gay marriage, and women’s equality; but, the traditional notion of marriage has not deteriorated, only reconditioned to match modern society. Whether people agree or not, the face of marriage has changed. Nowadays, there …show more content…
The husband was in charge of the household and everyone in it, and the wife is at home taking care of the children. As of the twenty-first century, women’s rights have improved tremendously, trophy wives are no longer the norm and women are not expected to be housewives. Emma Goldman, an anarchist and feminist, wrote an essay, Marriage and Love, in 1910 detailing her assumption that marriage is nothing more than an economic arrangement that only benefits the man. “If, however, a woman’s premium is a husband, she pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, ‘until death doth part.’ Moreover, the marriage insurance condemns her to life-long dependency, to parasitism, to complete uselessness, individual as well as social” (Goldman 241). Goldman believes that women have nothing to gain from marriage, it is only a crutch to support her economically. After a woman is married, she is no longer her own person who gets to choose her life. Now she must obey her husband and be a stay at home wife and mother. Women’s equality has changed for the better since Goldman’s day. In contrast to her day, women can work full time jobs, have hobbies and friends. Men can be stay at home dads, while the woman provides for the family. Furthermore, it may be two mothers or two fathers that are both providing and taking care of the children. Overall, the definition has changed so that …show more content…
Marriage today, excluding same-sex couples, entails that the mother usually stays at home with their children while they are young, or work a part-time job. Whereas they were forced to do that in the past, now mothers have the option to work, stay home with the children, or do both. In Mona Charen’s article Modern Family?, she emphasizes the fact that the traditional marriage is still intact only altered, if the definition were broader it would apply to most married couples. She believes that if one spouse works while the other stays at home to care for the children or work part time, that is more realistic (224). Charen points out that mothers prefer staying at home not working, or working part-time. On the other hand, many couples do not stay together. So, there is joint custody or just one parent raising children. In my experience, I was raised by my mother and my father was not involved at all. Charen would consider this untraditional, but, it is all I know and I prefered being raised in that way. Charen is correct in saying that traditional marriages are not dead, there are several couples who have that marriages, but to say that two parents raising children is the only traditional type of marriage is unrealistic. The definition of a good marriage is being looked at too narrowly, by expanding what a traditional marriage