So now young gay couples are feeling the heat from their parents: One friend of mine, a man who has been a couple with another man for years, got more than “So, when are you and Fred getting married?” He got a whispered, “So, when will your dad and I be grandparents?” My friend said, …
Years ago it was thought that husbands had affairs and wives did not. Really. I was thrown off several radio shows for insisting that the legions of men having affairs across the globe were not, as these talk-show hosts thought, sleeping only with a small pool of unmarried women, but with other wives as well. That …
Last week, a Portland, Oregan documentarist interviewed me about my feelings about open marriage. He’s making a documentary about marriage, and he wants to share his idea that couples should ditch sexual exclusivity and, moreover, be open and honest about it. A few days later I read Mark Oppenheimer’s article in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine …
The construct of the Wife, that traditional icon of virtue, has depressed many a woman and killed many a traditional marriage. Luckily for gay men and women, they won’t face this horrible cultural construct. And I say Amen to that!
More evidence that women’s attitudes toward marriage have changed dramatically: The Pew Research Center, which analyzes census data, confirms what I’ve been hearing from women: the desire to make their own self-expansion as important as it has always been for men and children. Women want more space in their relationships. Yes, I know, we used to mock …
Yesterday’s jubilant march along New York streets celebrating the right of gay men and women to marry was a spectacular reaffirmation of something we haven’t witnessed in awhile: A victory of civil rights, yes, but also a victory for marriage. Marriage needs a victory, for it’s in deep trouble. I’ve long lamented the high rate …
Ask Not What Gay Marriage Can Do For Us, But What We Can Do For Gay Couples Read More »
I mean, what is there left to say but “Whatever”? That’s now the word of choice used by the young when, yet again, some famous, important guy does something weird and inappropriate or bizarre with his libido. It’s our only remaining response to a morality that these men envision as entirely situational: a way to …
Weiner’s Reasons? Schwarzenegger’s Apology? Do We Care? Read More »
That an entire book has to be written about the way in which the French put pleasure first in their lives–a pleasure gleaned from a lovely long lunch; a good cheese; a natural (as opposed to a creepy or inappropriate) flirtation, makes me sad that our culture comes out so unfavorably. It’s true that in our culture, “pleasure” seems to …
My favorite new fact about marriage is not the Census Bureau’s 2010 report that four in ten Americans feel that marriage is becoming obsolete. (In my book, Marriage Shock, I’d already found that women were running away from marriage in droves–even young, newly married women. And that was over ten years ago.) No, the great new …
A quick note to say I’ll be away for two weeks and am abandoning ship for that time….but will be back in full force when I return to the computer! Please like my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, join my LinkedIn network, and visit my YouTube channel to receive exclusive content.
