Marriage In America Research Articles

The War of the Sexes Glossary: How Social Media Could Destroy American Marriage

We viewed highly influential social media channels on the internet regularly using non-participant observation as our method. We observed hundreds of short videos on YouTube and other platforms, as a sociocultural anthropologic field study, from January 2023 to January 2024. Given the well documented decline in marriage globally, we sought to understand common themes shared by social media content providers. Our non-participant observations led us to develop the War of the Sexes Glossary. Generation Z appears to have solidified a worldview that marriage is unnecessary. Emil Brunner’s predictions from 1945 have come true, where he argued that “If the social basis, marriage, is rotten, the whole community is rotten.” The Manosphere, in direct response to feminists’ rhetoric, has fostered three main complaints prohibiting them from marriage commitment: “No Fault Divorce,” “Presumptive Paternity” and “My Body, My Choice.” We offer practicable solutions to policy makers on how to mitigate this dangerous worldview that, if not corrected, could destroy marriage in America.

Listening to Loving

Richard and Mildred Loving are widely recognized as revolutionaries of social change, responsible for the landmark civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, which led to the abolition of state laws forbidding mixed-race marriage in America. The Lovings’ act of resistance is often (rightly) viewed as radical, but few scholars have focused specifically on Mildred Loving in particular as a revolutionary figure, because she was soft-spoken and reserved. This paper argues that in her quietness, Loving engaged in a deliberate form of resistance: She fought for her inalienable rights without ever raising her voice. With the assistance of Kevin Quashie’s The Sovereignty of Quiet and Tina Campt’s Listening to Images, this paper examines Mildred Loving as embodying an alternative form of Black activism. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that Mildred Loving’s political success was a result of her commitment to quiet activism. Loving’s quiet resistance is equally—if not more—productive than larger, louder forms of resistance to white supremacy and racism in America, and this form of resistance can be translated for use in our current moment where loud acts of protest often seem like the most effective option for activism and engagement.

Path of Survivors: An Analysis of Boy Erased and The Miseducation of Cameron Post

This study aims to analyse the impacts of conversion therapy and the self-transformation of the main characters in Boy Erased and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which are two films published post-legalisation of same-sex marriage in America. Both main characters showed signs of self-loathing, decreased authenticity, and feeling anger and disappointment due to conversion therapy. The two characters are first portrayed as victims and survivor of conversion therapy at the end of the film. Jared was shown as a silent victim turned outspoken survivor. Cameron was shown as a rebellious victim and survivor. Both films showed the growth from victims into survivors, which gave a strong, capable and hopeful image of homosexuals and is a contrast from some representation of homosexuals of the past. Despite the similarity in ending up as survivors, the two characters picked different fights. Keywords: Homosexual, Film, Victim, Survivor, Conversion therapy.

“Esther Weren’t No Harlot”: Rape and Marriage in Go Tell It on the Mountain

To consider how James Baldwin resisted racialized notions of sexuality in his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, I employ a number of black feminist critics—including Saidiya Hartman, Patricia Williams, Hortense Spillers, and Patricia Hill Collins—to analyze three under-studied minor characters: Deborah, Esther, and Richard. Those three characters are best understood as figures of heterosexual nonconformity who articulate sophisticated and important critiques of rape and marriage in America at the turn of the twentieth century. Baldwin thus wrote subversive theories of race and sexuality into the margins of the novel, making its style inextricable from its politics. Baldwin’s use of marginal voices was a deft and intentional artistic choice that was emancipatory for his characters and that remains enduringly relevant to American sexual politics. In this particularly polarizing transition from the Obama era to the Donald J. Trump presidency, I revisit Baldwin’s ability to subtly translate political ideas across fault lines like race, nationality, and sex.

Venue Effects: How State Policy Source Influences Policy Support

Does receiving information about a policy's source shape individual support for the policy? Is the public more supportive of policies issued by courts, legislatures, or citizens voting on a ballot initiative? Using a survey experiment, we find strong evidence that learning about a policy's source can affect support for the policy. Specifically, we find that state‐level policy sources influence both the degree and direction of influence on policy support. In general, when informed about a policy's source, survey participants are least likely to support the policy when it is judicially determined and instead prefer the policy when it is produced either through the legislature or by the voters. However, upon learning of the policy's source, self‐identified partisans and Independents differ significantly in their support for the policy.Related Articles Grossmann, Matt. 2014. “.” Politics & Policy 42 (): 881‐904. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12102/abstract Ertas, Nevbahar. 2015. “.” Politics & Policy 43 (): 426‐451. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12120/abstract Rugeley, Cynthia R., and John David Gerlach. 2012. “.” Politics & Policy 40 (): 444‐470. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00352.x/abstract Related Media Fox, Joe, and James Nubile. (2012) “Question 1: The Battle for Same Sex Marriage in America.” http://www.q1-themovie.com/ Klink, Jack. 2013. “Rise above the Mark.” https://riseabovethemark.com/

Race, sex, and the freedom to marry: Loving v. Virginia

In 1958 Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving, two young lovers from Caroline County, Virginia, got married. Soon they were hauled out of their bedroom in the middle of the night and taken to jail. Their crime? Loving was white, Jeter was not, and in Virginia--as in twenty-three other states then--interracial marriage was illegal. Their experience reflected that of countless couples across America since colonial times. And in challenging the laws against their marriage, the Lovings closed the book on that very long chapter in the nation's history. Race, Sex, and the Freedom to Marry tells the story of this couple and the case that forever changed the law of race and marriage in America. The story of the Lovings and the case they took to the Supreme Court involved a community, an extended family, and in particular five main characters--the couple, two young attorneys, and a crusty local judge who twice presided over their case--as well as such key dimensions of political and cultural life as race, gender, religion, law, identity, and family. In Race, Sex, and the Freedom to Marry, Peter Wallenstein brings these characters and their legal travails to life, and situates them within the wider context--even at the center--of American history. Along the way, he untangles the arbitrary distinctions that long sorted out Americans by racial identity--distinctions that changed over time, varied across space, and could extend the reach of criminal law into the most remote community. In light of the related legal arguments and historical development, moreover, Wallenstein compares interracial and same-sex marriage. A fair amount is known about the saga of the Lovings and the historic court decision that permitted them to be married and remain free. And some of what is known, Wallenstein tells us, is actually true. A detailed, in-depth account of the case, as compelling for its legal and historical insights as for its human drama, this book at long last clarifies the events and the personalities that reconfigured race, marriage, and law in America.

The Suffocation Model

Throughout American history, the fundamental purpose of marriage has shifted from (a) helping spouses meet their basic economic and political needs to (b) helping them meet their intimacy and passion needs to (c) helping them meet their autonomy and personal-growth needs. According to the suffocation model of marriage in America, these changes have had two major consequences for marital quality, one negative and one positive. The negative consequence is that, as Americans have increasingly looked to their marriage to help them meet idiosyncratic, self-expressive needs, the proportion of marriages that fall short of their expectations has grown, which has increased rates of marital dissatisfaction. The positive consequence is that those marriages that succeed in meeting these needs are particularly fulfilling, more so than the best marriages in earlier eras. In tandem, these two consequences have pushed marriage toward an all-or-nothing state.

"What, Another Female Husband?": The Prehistory of Same-Sex Marriage in America

In the fall of 1835 Hiram Hurlburt, a young boy growing up in Vermont, paid a visit to the local tailor shop to order a coat. Waiting his turn for service, Hurlburt observed the unusual couple who owned the business. Charity Bryant, a woman in her late fi fties and the shorter of the two, took the orders and wielded the scissors to cut the cloth. Sylvia Drake, some years younger, stayed quiet as she plied her needle in working her way through a stack of garments. After placing his order and leaving the shop, Hurlburt “heard it mentioned as if Miss Bryant and Miss Drake were married to each other.” He found the marriage so unusual that he recalled it sixty-two years later, when writing his memoir; however strange the arrangement, though, Hurlburt seemed to approve. When he deduced during later visits to the shop that “Miss Bryant was the man” in the marriage, he judged her role to be “perfectly proper.” Hurlburt recalled the women as church stalwarts who “got along pleasantly together” and earned the approbation of the community.1 Hurlburt’s recollections challenge the popular assumption of same-sex marriage as a modern innovation. During the March 2013 hearings of United States v. Windsor, for example, Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito pronounced same-sex marriage “newer than cell phones.” Fellow conservatives have argued that for “3,000 years of recorded history,” or at the very least “since America’s founding,” marriage has been “an institution between a man and a woman.” Progressives disagree with conservatives’ declensionist criticisms, but they concur that such unions represent a radical break from the past. To its supporters, same-sex marriage signifi es the high point of a narrative of progress from capital sodomy laws to present-day court decisions in favor of gay rights.2

One Marriage under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America By Melanie Heath New York University Press. 2012. 273 pages. $75.00 cloth, $24.00 paper

One Marriage under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America By Melanie Heath New York University Press. 2012. 273 pages. $75.00 cloth, $24.00 paper

One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America

One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America

The Suffocation of Marriage: Climbing Mount Maslow Without Enough Oxygen

This article distills insights from historical, sociological, and psychological perspectives on marriage to develop the suffocation model of marriage in America. According to this model, contemporary Americans are asking their marriage to help them fulfill different sets of goals than in the past. Whereas they ask their marriage to help them fulfill their physiological and safety needs much less than in the past, they ask it to help them fulfill their esteem and self-actualization needs much more than in the past. Asking the marriage to help them fulfill the latter, higher level needs typically requires sufficient investment of time and psychological resources to ensure that the two spouses develop a deep bond and profound insight into each other's essential qualities. Although some spouses are investing sufficient resources—and reaping the marital and psychological benefits of doing so—most are not. Indeed, they are, on average, investing less than in the past. As a result, mean levels of marital quality and personal well-being are declining over time. According to the suffocation model, spouses who are struggling with an imbalance between what they are asking from their marriage and what they are investing in it have several promising options for corrective action: intervening to optimize their available resources, increasing their investment of resources in the marriage, and asking less of the marriage in terms of facilitating the fulfillment of spouses’ higher needs. Discussion explores the implications of the suffocation model for understanding dating and courtship, sociodemographic variation, and marriage beyond American's borders.

Marriage at the Summit: Response to the Commentaries

This article serves as a response to the 13 commentaries on the target article, which introduced the suffocation model of marriage in America. This reply has four main sections. First, it presents an elaborated version of the suffocation model that was inspired by the commentaries. Second, it addresses three areas of significant disagreement that emerged as we digested the commentaries. Third, it examines the circumstances under which being instrumental for one's spouse's needs benefits the self. And fourth, it takes strides toward the development of a mathematically formal version of the suffocation model. It concludes with a discussion of the ways in which policymakers, clinicians, and individual Americans can capitalize upon the suffocation model to strengthen marriage and, in doing so, bolster personal well-being.

Book Review: One Marriage under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America by Melanie Heath

Book Review: <i>One Marriage under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America</i> by Melanie Heath

One Marriage under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America. By Melanie Heath. New York: New York University Press, 2012. Pp. xii+260. $75.00 (cloth); $24.00 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsOne Marriage under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America. By Melanie Heath. New York: New York University Press, 2012. Pp. xii+260. $75.00 (cloth); $24.00 (paper).Virginia RutterVirginia RutterFramingham State University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 118, Number 5March 2013 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/669138 Views: 41Total views on this site For permission to reuse a book review printed in the American Journal of Sociology, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America

One Marriage Under God: The Campaign to Promote Marriage in America

A change has come: The Obamas and the culture of black marriage in America

Given the historical nature of the Obama presidency, this paper qualitatively examines whether black men and women believe the Obamas can change low marriage rates among blacks in America. By using a marital–political–cultural change framework as our foundation, this exploratory study examined the written responses of 17 blacks between the ages of 23 and 61 years to two questions. (1) “Do you believe that President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have the ability to change low marriage rates among blacks in the United States?” (2) “In what ways can President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama change low marriage rates among blacks in the United States?” Qualitative analyses of the data resulted in four delineated themes: (1) the inability of the Obamas to change the importance of marriage; (2) the inability of the Obamas to change marital motivations and stability; (3) the ability of the Obamas to change low marriage rates among blacks through positive interactions; and (4) the ability of the Obamas to change low marriage rates among blacks as a positive model for marriage. Supporting qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme. Policy implications for black marriage are also discussed.

One marriage under God: the campaign to promote marriage in America

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: Marriage Promotion, Heterosexuality and Being 1 Unite! Marriage and American Identity 2 The Stakes of Gender and Heterosexuality 3 Widening the Marriage Gap 4 Teaching Marriage to Single Mothers and Inmates 5 Marriage Recitals in High School 6 Contesting Native American Marriage Conclusion: The Power of the M-Word Appendix A: Methods Appendix B: Sample Characteristics: In-depth Interviews of Participants in Workshops for the General Population Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

The Growing Acceptance and Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage in America Constitutes a Victory for Reality-Based Thinking

This paper describes the recent strides towards marriage for gays and lesbians in the United States against the backdrop of the growing acceptance of realist philosophy and jurisprudence. Realist analysis now pervades American constitutional law as demonstrated by the adoption of the rational basis and strict scrutiny standards. Most significantly, constitutionality under Equal Protection is now determined under the reality-based equality principle which requires that persons who are similarly situated must be treated alike. To determine whether same-sex couples are similarly situated the courts have relied on expert testimony tested by cross examination as well as Brandeis briefs. The recent legislative enactments and judicial decisions recognizing same-sex marriage represent the triumph of reality-based analysis over traditional forms of legal reasoning.

Changing Patterns of Interracial Marriage in a Multiracial Society

We use incidence data from the 1980 Census and 2008 American Community Survey to track recent trends in interracial marriage. Intermarriage with Whites increased rapidly among Blacks but stalled among Asians and American Indians. Black–White intermarriage increased threefold over 1980–2008, independent of changing socioeconomic status, suggesting declining social distance between Blacks and Whites. Marriages between the U.S.- and foreign-born populations also grew rapidly. Marriages to immigrants increased fivefold among U.S.-born Asian women and doubled among U.S.-born Latinas since 1980. Out-marriage to Whites also was higher among self-identified biracial than monoracial individuals, but these differences were smallest among Blacks. Interracial couples were overrepresented among cohabiting couples. Finally, log-linear models provide evidence of growing racial exogamy, but only after adjusting for changing demographic opportunities for intermarriage. Marriages between U.S.- and foreign-born coethnics have been driven by new immigration while slowing the upward trajectory of interracial marriage in America.

Same-sex marriage: a reference handbook

This book offers an analysis of the past and current status of same-sex marriage in the United States and other nations of the world, accompanied by a balanced review of the arguments in favor of and opposed to the practice. Despite a general attitude shift towards accepting same-sex relationships in the United States over the last two decades, there is still a prevailing opinion that same-sex marriages should be prohibited. Indeed, even among the few states that have legalize marriage for same-sex couples, California, Hawaii, and Maine have had their statutes overturned by state voters. This book provides a comprehensive review of attitudes toward same-sex marriage in the United States, examining historical events, religious traditions, and gender norms that have influenced understandings of same-sex marriage in America. Information regarding same-sex relationships in other cultures, both today and in previous eras, provides insightful perspective to the topic; arguments for and against same-sex marriages are presented along with rebuttals to both positions. * Presents laws, executive orders, reports, and legal decisions regarding same-sex marriage * Contains a clear chronology of U.S. and international events related to same-sex marriage * Provides an extensive annotated bibliography of books, articles, and electronic sources * Includes bibliographic sketches of important individuals in the history of same-sex marriage * Offers profiles of the major organizations that are actively involved in the issue and represent various perspectives