Thursday, June 7, 2012

Man-Woman Marriage as a "Microcosm of Society"

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of births to unmarried women in the US in 2009 was 41% (PDF).

Those who oppose marriage equality sometimes assert that marriage as one man, one woman, and their biological children constitutes the "microcosm of society."

Yet, given the above statistic, is such a claim really accurate? Don't many, various "microcosms" of society exist, given the reality that families come in multiple forms?

The claim that heterosexual marriage constitutes the "microcosm of society," not only implies that only one authentic way to be a family exists and thereby erases non-heteronormative families, it also implies that only one authentic way to be a woman (or a man) exists.. Note, for instance, the following claim expressed by a proponent of the "microcosm of society" talking point:
"Marriage provides the child with two parents: one to be emulated, and one whose qualities are sought in a spouse of their own. The differences in the sexes are not arbitrary social fiat, but unchangeable natural fact."
Here, we learn both that the sexes are very different and that these differences are an "unchangeable natural fact." This conventional narrative implies that people who do not possess these purportedly "unchangeable" "qualities" that men and women apparently "naturally" possess are either unreal men and women or they do not exist.

Notice the internal contradiction, as usual, within this narrative. These differences are so very "unchangeable" and "natural," oh yes they certainly are! just take their word for it! everyone knows it!. In fact, these different qualities are so natural and inherent in male and female that children must learn to emulate these "unchangeable natural" differences by observing the behavior of the parent whose sex they share.

I often find that those who believe in this myth of gender complementarity often deem themselves brave truth-tellers about What Men And Women Are Really Like But No One Is "Allowed" To Say Anymore Because Of Feminism.

Well then.

Perhaps it is for the sake of the "traditional values" politically correct and their folksy-folks commonsensical "truths" about gender that the more rational thinkers among this crowd ignore the obvious disconnect within their heteronormative indoctrination plan.

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