Summary Of Love And Marriage: Through The Lens Of Sociological Theories

Most people argue that the family is in ‘crisis’. They point to the rapidly increasing divorce rate, cohabitation, illegitimacy and number of single parent families.

Sociology of Marriage and the Family is the study of one of the most important social institutions, the family. The goal of this study is to teach ethics, guidelines, and skills to aid in maintaining and strengthening the household as to promote the well being of the family unit and its counterparts.

Marriage and family is one of the most interesting and relevant topics that we have covered in sociology so far. Our class discussions were eye-opening, as I now realize the impact my family has on me. We learn our gender roles and how to generally act in society because of our family, which may be positive or negative. We also begin to realize the differences in other family households, which may lead to stereotyping.

What would happen to society if marriage completely disappeared from American culture? Many would consider this an absurd and illogical question at first hearing. After some thought, one may begin to contemplate the reality of American marriage and realize what it has become. Some would agree that marriage is certainly not what it used to be in past generations and has dramatically changed from what it was, even just a few decades ago. The article from “The National Marriage Project” discusses the changes happening in American marriages and families today, the reasons why those changes are occurring, and the impact those changes have on individuals, groups, and the American society as a whole. Although the future of American marriage is somewhat unclear, the major changes of marriages and the family are clear specifically of America’s view on marriage, divorce, unmarried cohabitation, and non-marital childbearing.

In The Cohabitation Epidemic, Neil Clark Warren talks about the two sides of cohabitation which are those who do not have thoughts or intentions of marriage, and to those that want to benefit “a trial marriage”. One of the reasons of forgoing or delaying marriage is “Marriage has lost a lot of its luster in our society. The truth is, many people have never seen a successful, thriving marriage, mainly because great marriages are becoming scarce.” (pg.505-506). This would be a fallacy of appealing to an emotion and tradition since many children these are born to unmarried parents due to divorce, or there is lack of understanding of marriage. Because the children live with unmarried parents, this would lead to a tradition of not having to be married

Objective – Explain basic sociological concepts of the family, marriage, and intimate relationships. (Pg. 365)

The simplest and most basic foundation of a sociological civilization or group begins at the core center of sociology; which is marriage and the inner-fabric creation of a family. It is said that matches are made in heaven, however finding and defining your “soul mate” differs from one social group to the next. The social institution of marriage changes and adapts consistently through time, religious practice, and national beliefs. Many people believe they lead happy and satisfying lives without a marital partner, as others highly value and desire a life-long marital partner as the pinnacle achievement of their life.

According to the theory of Structural Functionalism (Strong, 2014), Caroline Payne’s family unit (Shipler, 2004), functions in society in many ways. Caroline benefits society by getting married and producing four children in those marriages, positive because she socializes her children to integrate into society. Her son and daughter- in- law are a support system for her because they take in Amber, Caroline’s youngest, disabled daughter, for better quality of education than in New Hampshire, helping to socialize this child.

Today, the idea of marriage conjures images of bashful brides beautifully draped in all white, of grandiose flower arrangements climbing towards the ceiling, of romance personified. As an institution in this modern world, marriage represents the apex of romantic love, with an entire industry of magazines, movies, and television shows devoted to perpetuating marriage as an idealized symbol of the ultimate love between two people. Contrarily, as a sociological institution, marriage comes from much more clinical and impersonal origins, contrasting with the passion surrounding modern understandings of the institution. Notably, french anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss theorizes that the institution of marriage emerged from a need to form alliances between groups, with women functioning as the property exchanged so that such alliances could be solidified (Levi-Strauss).

In Andrew J. Cherlin’s essay “American Marriage In Transition”, he discusses how marriage in America is evolving from the universal marriage. Cherlin’s definition of the universal marriage in his essay is the man is the breadwinner of the household and the woman is the homemaker. In the 20th century according to Cherlin, the meaning of marriage has been altered such as the changing division of labor, childbearing outside of marriage, cohabitation, gay marriage and the result of long- term cultural and material trends (1154). During the first transition of marriage, Cherlin discusses how in America, Europe, and Canada the only socially accepted way to have sexual relations with a person and to have children is to be married (1154). The second change in marriage occurred in 2000, where the median age of marriage in the United States for men is 27 and women is 25 (1155). Many young adults stayed single during this time and focused on their education and starting their careers. During the second change, the role of law increasingly changed, especially in the role of law in divorce (1155). It is proven in today’s research marriage has a different definition than what it did back in the 1950’s. Today marriage can be defined as getting married to the same gender or getting remarried to someone who already has kids. The roles in a marriage are evolving to be a little more flexible and negotiable. However, women still do a lot of the basic household chores and taking care of the

Our society is based on different institutions. These institutions were implemented to set rules for members of the society to be able to live together. Marriage is one of these institutions. People get engaged with one another to build a life together, but they rarely ask themselves an important question: What are the concrete impact of Quebec's rules and regulations associated with marriage on the couples that decide to get married? Why do so many people choose to be in a common-law relationship instead? This paper will explain why marriage, as a social institution, should be reformed because of the poor adequacy between the needs of today's families and the rules in place in term of commitment,

Avril Lavigne revealed her split with Chad Kroeger ending their two years of marriage on her Instagram account on Wednesday. The Canadian-French singer shared the sad news along with their wedding photo which made it more dramatic.

Hey you! Are you in a committed relationship with your partner and have kids? If so then that's when one introduces marriage. America’s social construction of marriage is known as a lifelong commitment that a straight, monogamous couple makes to each other either civil or religious. Couples who have kids, intend to build a family, or let society know the commitment they have for one and other should get married. In the book, The Commitment, the author Daniel Savage and his partner Terry Miller question the idea of marriage and believe that there are other ways to show their commitment. Dan and Terry should have got married and have a wedding because it shows the commitment they have to each other and their son D.J to the public. They shouldn't have gotten tattoos because marriage is enough

Another area of similarity is the theme of love being explored exhaustively. There are different dimensions of love in the two stories. In 'The Word Love and Arranged Marriage,' 'We only have each other she often told her." (Banerjee 58) This suggests that there is a pure demonstration of compassion and maternal love displayed by the lady's mother towards her. The writer perfectly captured how she never remarried and dedicated her life to raising her despite the fact that her husband died two months after her birth. The passionate love that existed between the lady and her foreign lover is noticeable. Though she is overwhelmed by the impending consequence of her relationship which is antithetical to the Calcutta's marriage rite “(There has not been rain for a long time.) I am cherished.” (Banerjee 61). This suggests how intense and profound her love is to the guy; she feels she is blessed. She found it difficult to separate and work away. In fact, at a time, she almost forgot about the issue of arranged marriage. In the same vein, the theme of love is depicted in Silver Pavements

Social conservatives blame divorce, cohabitation, illegitimacy, and the demise of the traditional family for society's ills, from poverty, crime, and juvenile delinquency to the moral decay and destruction of the American way of life. In the 1970s, marriage was at its lowest but by the late 1990s there was a reappearance of marriage, seen in the leveling off of the divorce rate. Although the claims for the value of marriage by conservatives and gay-rights proponents "were from two ends of the spectrum, they came together — at least at the rhetorical level — for what marriage...accomplishes and how crucial it is as a social institution." (Gallagher, 2002)