BBC’s More or Less wanted to know why 74% of the same sex divorces in the UK are in marriages between two women. I don’t have the complete answer to this question – there is a very serious lack of data. But I have some theories I was happy to share with Tim Harford.
Tag: same sex marriage (Page 1 of 2)
The Sunday Times asked me how the new markets for sex and love were affecting marriage and divorce. Here are my thoughts in a column in this Sunday’s paper,
Don’t you just hate it when people that you fundamentally disagree with say something that you know to be true? Back in March, Brian Brown, president of the National Organization For Marriage (NOM), said “Corporations should not take sides in a culture war that pits a company against the majority of the American people.”
Here’s a question I have been struggling for years: Why do we marry? I am not confused about the desire to have a wedding – the pretty dress, standing before family and friends, the party – that part I get. It’s the need to seek the government seal of approval of the marriage that challenges me.
To lesbian mothers everywhere I have this to say – welcome to the community of second-rate parents. Don’t worry, you won’t be lonely here. You will have lots of company among us single and divorced mothers who have doomed their children to miserable lives. You thought you were doing a good job, I know, but as it turns out the only thing that really matters is that you are sleeping at night next to the man that shares their DNA. You might as well accept that your little one is going to be a drug addicted, high school dropout who is reliant on government aid as there is nothing you can do about it.
When I was five my family got its first microwave oven. The department store sent a nice lady over to teach my mother how she could use it to roast a chicken while we four children looked on in amazement. Little did I know then that this device was about to revolutionize marriage in an entirely unexpected way.
Men have stronger sexual desires than do women…Women are the more monogamous gender…Homosexuality is an unnatural sexual behavior.
Sexual beliefs, like these, are so widespread that we have collectively come to view them as being embedded in our biology. Cross-cultural data collected from pre-industrial societies, however, tells a different story. That data suggests that culture – including religion – has played an important role in ingraining these “truths” about human sexuality into our collective psyche.
“Lesbian break-ups can apparently be bitchier than gay men’s.” wrote columnist Giles Hattersley in the Sunday Times this weekend as he speculated his way through a piece on why 62% of civil union dissolutions (i.e. divorces) in the UK are between women despite the fact that lesbian relationships only represent 44% of civil partnerships in that country.
Prejudice is a difficult concept to measure. One possible way is to ask people the question, “Who would you not like to have as a neighbor?” When the World Values Survey (WVS) asks this question the order of the most popular responses goes like this: drug addicts, heavy drinkers, and homosexuals.
A love story for the 21st century (cue the violins). Several years ago a very close family friend in Vancouver was searching our family name on the Internet and had the good fortune to meet up with the wife of my cousin in South Africa. The two women became friends and eventually fell in love. Divorce (from my cousin) and marriage between them followed (essentially, since marriage laws in South Africa weren’t quite there yet). Canadian immigration law allowed my cousin’s now former wife to enter the country (with my little second cousins) as the wife of our good friend and they have lived (very) happily ever after.
