A very long piece in The Atlantic this month has pointed out several things we’ve been talking about in my books and blogs for over a decade. Which only illustrates the extreme disconnect between what has been going on statistically in this country for years and what the culture wishes to deny. The author of …
One day, when I was seventeen, I approached my father with questions about love, like Why should a woman marry? This confused him because he and my mother loved each other, their marriage was good, and their other daughter, my older sister, was already also happily married. Nevertheless, I said.. Why? And what’s this “obey” …
Lucy Stone: A Place of Honor on National Women’s Equality Day Read More »
Okay, so Treasury Bonds are being grabbed; gold is being hoarded; God is being called upon like never before to save us all from chaos, as He was in Houston a few weeks ago, by tens of thousands of evangelical Christians. Many have written about the problem of harking back to our belief systems, and our …
Now that we’re no longer a married culture; now that we have more single people floating about the country than wedded ones, it’s fun to watch the family-values contingent race to point fingers. Who is responsible for this cultural sea-change? Who, they want to know, is bad, and who is good? I always want to …
Why the Very, Very Righteous Make Me Very, Very Nervous Read More »
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, …
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 »
