DEATH BY ADJECTIVE: David Blankenhorn

ADJECTIVES REQUIRED? "Traditional marriage sure to survive."

I think it's official. When referring to marriage, the implicit, unstated understanding of "heterosexual" has been replaced by the word "traditional." So now we have another adjective that we have to insert before the word "marriage" in order to specify our meaning.

Good grief. Here is my rule: Every time marriage nuts are forced to stick an adjective in front of the word marriage, we lose. Marriage is a big, old, strong word that has gotten along fine for 4,000 years without any adjectives. Now, adjectives are suddenly required. They are used with apparent approval even among people who wish the institution well.

Take an example: "healthy" marriage. I understand where this comes from. But it troubles me. Are you for marriage? Well, not really. I am for "healthy" marriage. Regular old marriage, you see, might be full of all kinds of problems, like domestic violence, unhappiness, patriarchy, and rigid sex roles. (Do you like to play tennis? Not really. But I do from time to time enjoy "healthy tennis." You know, tennis that's not ... unhealthy.)

And now, as of about five minutes ago, we have something called "civil marriage," which, we are told, is something quite different from "religious marriage." Funny. That thought had never occurred to me until ... about five minutes ago. And now we have "traditional" marriage, for those who think that marriage is ... between a man and a woman.

If there is a better indicator of the frailty of marriage today this trend of font-loading adjectives, I am not aware of it.

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posted by Eve at 4:58 PM | link

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