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Not That I'm Feeling Hostile But....
Dec. 11th, 2008 10:37 pmWell, yeah, I'm feeling hostile!
If I hear one more conservative say "we can't change how marriage has been defined for the last 4000 years, to do so will destroy marriage as we know it", I may have to kick them in the head. (Fortunately, I'll likely only hear it on tv again and get the reaction out of my system, so I can be safe from assualt charges.)
Let us just acknowledge, for just one moment, that marriage has not been defined as one man and one woman for 4000 years (direct quote), or even 1000 years, and outside of the Western World, not even a year. Polyandry (multiple husbands), is practiced to this very day in Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa among tribes like the Maasai, and throughout cultures of China and India.
Polygyny (multiple wives {also practiced in the above places}) is found throughout the bible, and has been practiced by every hunter-gatherer culture on the planet at one time or another to one degree or another. This includes both official wives and "lesser wives" like concubinage in China, and royal mistresses in Western culture (can I get a "Fitzroy"). Polygyny was legal in the United States until 1890 and yet somehow the institution of marriage between one man and one woman survived.
Can we also take a moment to address that in China and India, not every wife or concubine was a biological female despite living as one.
Polygamy has always existed and still exist to this very day, December 11th, 2008. The world has kept spinning, the sun keeps rising, gravity hasn't failed, and folks still get married every single day. So it is not the unshakeable concept of marriage as between one man and one woman that has kept society from tearing itself apart. It's the fact that folks fall in love and pursue a dream and come together to make families that in turn create society.
The genitalia of those folks coming together and the number in which they come together is inconsequental to the fact that they come together, they always have and always will. Legalizing same-sex marriage merely increases the number of those coming together in love and raising families. What can be more community building and society enhancing than that?
Will it change marriage as we know it now? Yes. Guess what? The end of slavery changed industry as we knew it in 1865. Women in the workplace changed society as we knew it during and after WWII. "White Flight" to the suburbs changed community as we knew it in the 50's. The pill changed the sexual landscape as we knew it in the 60's.
Change happens. And I, for one, am not going back!
"Kick to the head would do 'em good" Ramble, Done
~X
If I hear one more conservative say "we can't change how marriage has been defined for the last 4000 years, to do so will destroy marriage as we know it", I may have to kick them in the head. (Fortunately, I'll likely only hear it on tv again and get the reaction out of my system, so I can be safe from assualt charges.)
Let us just acknowledge, for just one moment, that marriage has not been defined as one man and one woman for 4000 years (direct quote), or even 1000 years, and outside of the Western World, not even a year. Polyandry (multiple husbands), is practiced to this very day in Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa among tribes like the Maasai, and throughout cultures of China and India.
Polygyny (multiple wives {also practiced in the above places}) is found throughout the bible, and has been practiced by every hunter-gatherer culture on the planet at one time or another to one degree or another. This includes both official wives and "lesser wives" like concubinage in China, and royal mistresses in Western culture (can I get a "Fitzroy"). Polygyny was legal in the United States until 1890 and yet somehow the institution of marriage between one man and one woman survived.
Can we also take a moment to address that in China and India, not every wife or concubine was a biological female despite living as one.
Polygamy has always existed and still exist to this very day, December 11th, 2008. The world has kept spinning, the sun keeps rising, gravity hasn't failed, and folks still get married every single day. So it is not the unshakeable concept of marriage as between one man and one woman that has kept society from tearing itself apart. It's the fact that folks fall in love and pursue a dream and come together to make families that in turn create society.
The genitalia of those folks coming together and the number in which they come together is inconsequental to the fact that they come together, they always have and always will. Legalizing same-sex marriage merely increases the number of those coming together in love and raising families. What can be more community building and society enhancing than that?
Will it change marriage as we know it now? Yes. Guess what? The end of slavery changed industry as we knew it in 1865. Women in the workplace changed society as we knew it during and after WWII. "White Flight" to the suburbs changed community as we knew it in the 50's. The pill changed the sexual landscape as we knew it in the 60's.
Change happens. And I, for one, am not going back!
"Kick to the head would do 'em good" Ramble, Done
~X
