Wendy McElroy writes on the always-interesting iFeminists.com about the growing Marriage Strike among men. Much of it rang quite true for me, although I am married and intend to be for the rest of my life. Then again, I probably wouldn't have gotten married again if it weren't to a woman who I fully believed was totally committed to a lifelong relationship.
McElroy's proposed solution, however, strikes me as fanciful. While the notion of abolishing government-issued marriage licenses is interesting, and possibly very logical, it strikes me as incredibly unlikely to happen any time soon. Such sweeping changes don't happen very often in politics.
Still, there is absolutely no doubt that the law is deeply cruel to men in this area, and has been for some time. That so many misandrists of the world tend to haughtily sneer at that fact doesn't make it any less true.
* Update * I've also been meaning to link her The Great Lie column for some time now. You really should read it.
Dean, as every American Serviceman can tell you the "great lie" is "I love you, no shit, GI."
You know, I read that article, read that source material, agreed with almost all of it. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, the articles reminded me that the future belongs to those who engage the world, not those who withdraw from it, even if the world can be horribly unfair.
A marriage strike? More like a marriage delay. There is a lot at stake -- but there's always been a lot at stake.
Whether you're a man or a woman, you can get burned with an alcoholic. A cheater. A depressive. A mindless dipshit. A connect-the-dots middle-class American-dream chaser without the imagination to color outside the borders even once. A Pharisee. A person who discovers "the answer", especially if it involves multi-level marketing. Someone who will abandon you in your age. Someone who you wish would abandon you, but won't. Someone who doesn't share. Someone who stops sharing. Someone who shares too much. A heartless bitch/bastard who decides to take you for all your worth.
Nonetheless, that's the risks. As I've said before on this blog, most of my friends are happy in their marriages. Fortune favors the brave and all that ...
I'm glad to be married too.
But I know an awful lot of people, Bill, who have been cohabiting without getting hitched for years. I've met people who've been doing that for decades.
Of course, time was we'd have considered that a common law marriage.