The issue of marriage and the legitimacy of the concept or strength of how they hold up to society's standards is often a hot button topic of our time, affecting millions, if not billions. Many consequently claim that often one side is to blame for a marriage being ‘’failed’’. However, many like to claim that non-commitment is the issue plaguing marriages; however, in practice and logically, this is a false statement. It has been discovered that it is incorrect to say that non-commitment is the issue that drives divorce rates, according to "Women and the Future of Fatherhood by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead." My claim can be assured and confirmed for the following reasons. Initially, Barbra Whitehead nebulously claimed that “Men, by contrast, have …show more content…
This is proven by Barbara Kingsolver using a personal statement that directly refutes this claim that non-traditional marriages aren't valid or otherwise considered “failed” with the line as followed by Kingsolver, who proclaims, “My daughter tells me the only time she's uncomfortable about being the child of divorced parents is when her friends say they feel sorry for her.’’ The essence of this quotation is simply stated: society looks down on and undervalues "nontraditional" families as alternatives or ways to have a relationship exist without marriage or even after marriage, which be fulfilled or to have status in society. Some may argue that these alternative families are more unhappy than traditional families; however, this statement is also deluded, as this assertion takes the fallacy that correlation is equivalent to causation, which is dispelled by Barbara Kingsolver, who states, “When anyone asks how her daughter feels about it, she spontaneously lists the benefits: our house is in the country and we have a dog, but she can go to her dad's neighborhood for the urban thrills of a pool and sidewalks for
Society considers divorce as a failure and a destruction to a family unit when in reality divorce should be considered normal considering that the majority of families are blended or single parent homes. Barbara Kingsolver, an american novelist and essayist states her thoughts about divorce, blended and broken families in her essay titled “Stone Soup.” She argues that no family is perfect and that all families have problems. She uses examples, statistics and metaphors to persuade her readers of what a true family is. She informs us based on her own life experiences: her values, changes, and choices which ended in her divorce.
In some cases this is the truth, but not it all. Even though there can be struggles with these types of families, it does not mean their children will have bad lives. For example, my cousins were divorced and their children still succeeded in their lives. The children did not take the divorce as a way to “act out” or drop out of school. One of the children is even recently engaged. Just because your parents get divorce, does not mean the children fail in the world. The parents can still be models towards their children. This example proves that a divorced family does not have to destroy a family. Even though Kingsolver has some good points, I do not believe her statement is completely
“When an unmarried woman became pregnant, relatives pressured her and her partner to agree to a ‘shotgun wedding’… Most social scientists agree that, on average, children who grow up in a one-parent family are more disadvantaged than children who grow up with two parents” (pp. 190). While I was reading these, I was thinking, “Well, duh!” I also found interesting that Neuman found “…people whose parents had been divorced had poorer mental health as adults” (pp. 191). I know that many of these people had other factors that contribute to this so this was not the reason for their poor mental health, but I still thought, “Wow! I would have never made that
Introduction A century ago, divorce was nearly non-existent due to the cultural and religious pressures placed upon married couples. Though over time Canadians have generally become more tolerant of what was once considered ‘mortal sin’, marital separation and divorce still remain very taboo topics in society. Political leaders are frowned upon when their marriages’ crumble, religions isolate and shun those who break their martial vows, and people continue to look down on those who proceed to legally separate their households. With that being said, couples do not just decide to get a divorce for no particular reason. There must be something driving them towards marital dissatisfaction and further, driving them towards divorce.
No matter who you are one day in life you are going to meet someone who takes your breath away. Someone who you feel you could just simply not live without and when that day comes so will the day that you decide between marriage or cohabitation. In James Q. Wilson’s article “Cohabitation Instead of Marriage” and Andrew J. Cherlin’s article “The Origins of the Ambivalent Acceptance of Divorce.” cover many marital relationship topics such as history, money, children, and culture.
Marriage is the legal or formally recognized union of a man and a woman, or two people or the same sex as partners in a relationship. Marriage rates in the United States have changed drastically since the last 90’s and early 2000 years (Cherlin 2004). Marital decline perspective and marital resilience perspective are the two primary perspectives and which we believe are the results from the decline. The marital decline perspective is the view that the American culture has become increasingly individualistic and preoccupied with personal happiness (Amato, 2004). The change in attitudes has changed the meaning of marriage as a whole, from a formal institution
Marriage is a commitment that seems to be getting harder to keep. The social standards placed on an individual by society and influenced by the media inevitably lead some to consider divorce as a “quick-fix” option. “Have it your way” has become a motto in the United States. It has become a country without any consideration of the psychological effects of marriage and divorce. The overwhelmingly high divorce rate is caused by a lack of moral beliefs and marital expectations.
Society seems to have many different opinions when it comes to relationships and families and what is ideal. The ideal family may not exist anymore. We now have in our society families that are complete that do not necessarily contain the traditional material. The traditional family, as society would see it; usually consist of a married, mother and father and usually children. Moms are supposed to stay at home while dads work the forty-hour a week job. However, in our 2003 world, families exist in a lot of non-traditional ways. A lot of families now consist of single parent families, or same sex parents and their children, or even couples that are unmarried but live together. And even now, if a family contains what society sees as traditional as far as having a mom, dad, and kids, other aspects are not traditional anymore. Women now have more opportunity in the workplace than they have ever had, therefore, many moms are career moms and dads are sometimes staying at home. Years ago, these types of families were given labels for being dysfunctional or abnormal, however, this label is not holding up as well as it did years ago. There are many non-traditional families that are raising children in a loving, nurturing home with a substantial amount of quality love. Quality is the key in any relationship between anyone. Society is finding out that it is not the traditional image that makes a loving family, but the quality of a relationship that people give to each other is what really makes a family. In the essay "The Myth of the "Normal" Family", written by Lousie B. Silverstein and Carl F. Auerbach, they make references to the cultural idea of what a "normal" family should be and what i...
Inside the article “Why Marriage is Good for You”, Maggie Gallagher makes claims that marriage improves many facets of an individual’s life; including both mental and physical health, longevity, finances, and reduced chances of infidelity (Gallagher). The statements made throughout the article reference many statistics and studies conducted by various organizations and individuals, however, Gallagher falls victim to a number of common logical fallacies. While this weakens Gallagher’s argument in the article, it does not necessarily make it false.
Every year approximately 2.4 million marriages occur.Out of those,2.1 millionwill file for divorce in the United States. These marriage and divorce rates have significantly increased since the years past(Coltrane and Adams, 364).According to Schoen, in the 1950’s, 15 out of 1,000 marriages ended in divorce.In the 1970’s, the rates of divorcedoubled,increasing to 40 per 1,000 marriages. Currently, the rate of marriages resulting in divorce remains the same. Most marriages are ending within seven years ofthemarriage for multiple different reasons. Sociologists haveestablisheddivorce as a social problem from the rise in divorcerates due to the early year of marriages (2006).
Throughout the last half of the century, our society has watched the divorce rate of married couples skyrocket to numbers previously not seen. Although their has been a slight decline in divorce rates, “half of first marriages still were expected to dissolve before death.” (Stacy, 15, 1991) Whatever happened to that meaningful exchange of words, “until death do us part,” uttered by the bride and groom to each other on their wedding day? What could have been the cause of such inflated divorce rates? Perhaps young married couples are not mature enough to be engaged in such a trremendous responsibility, or, maybe, the couples really do not know each other as well as they thought. Possibly, they have been blinded by infatuation rather than by true love, or, quite simply, the couples mistakenly have different relational expectations.
Divorce has become a phenomenon of the modern world and is grabbing attention of numerous nations as well as the media. Divorce rates are escalating in a global perspective however the increase is not as rapid as it used to be a few decades ago. Developed countries, such as the US, England and Wales are experiencing a gradual decrease in divorce rates and marriage rates since 1980 and is showing no sign of increasing. Divorce affects a wide population especially because of the development of
The sudden socioeconomic transformation of the last century has substantially affected the tradition of marriage in modern society. Therefore, several alternatives to marriage have become available and grown to be more popular than marriage for today’s couples due to its suitability to current conditions. Some of these alternative statuses to marriage are cohabitation, divorce, or simply continuing to be single and this claim is supported through the findings of a recent study. The percentage of adults who are married has notably decreased from 1960 to 2008 by twenty percent (Pew Research Center). These statistics will not improve any time soon as “the average age at which men and women first marry is now the highest ever recorded” (Pew Research Center). These statistics may seem that society has lost a valuable part of life and the significance of two partners becoming one. However, from another perspective, it is a positive change in society where one or both partners do not lose their individuality and are equal, and are more accepting of other relationship choices.
A family traditionally is related by blood. Through marriage, a male and female unite their lives and create new lives by giving birth to children. Procreation allows separate bloods of two completely independent people to intermix giving birth to a new child, which creates new blood and advocates the idea of family defined by Random House Western Dictionary. Although the traditional value and meaning of family still exist in the 21st century, family has begun to change and allowed more variation into what defines a family. (connection between the before and after sentence is a bit choppy) Skepticism makes society unaware of divorce(not clear). People have been ashamed of divorces and shunned those that chose divorce as an alternative method to fix their marriage. Regardless, this shows that the marriage between a man and woman is not always successful. An unsuccessful marriage correlates to an unhappy family. Thus, high di...
I didn’t grow up in such home of one bread winner and one stay at home mom both my parents worked all my life, however now I find myself creating this type of family in my household. As quoted by the Coontz Article “We need to build values and social establishments that can join people’s needs for independence with their equally important rights to dependence, and we must reject older solutions that involved balancing these needs on the backs of women. We will not find our answers in nostalgia for a mythical “traditional family.” I agree with the articles statement however if a family is created with the traditional foundation it is what works for them. Shaping a family traditional or non-traditional is a personal choice, the opinion of others doesn’t matter as long as it is well fit for your family. These are the traditional values that many seek for their families and household’s. A two-parent family in which the husband provides financially while the wife manages home life and childrearing activities. The gender roles are absolute in relationship and household. Most (preferably all) members of the family attend Christian church. Children are attentive, respectful, bright, and responsible. Families live in the same town, or at least the same vicinity, for generations. Divorce is unheard of, and is considered shameful. Homosexuality, nonconformist behavior, child abuse, abortion, and domestic abuse do not exist. Unmarried couples are extremely rare, and frequently are shunned. The number of never-married men (“confirmed bachelors”) and women (“spinsters”) is extremely low. (Coontz, Stephanie, The Way We Never Were, p. 25) Many of these ideas are wonderful but to lump the majority of these idea on