Let me see if I am reading your point correctly. "If anyone can marry anyone now, what is the point of marriage any more?" - is that what your argument is?
Not quite. More that if the definition of marriage is negotiable, let's negotiate. What exactly do you think marriage is?
But doesn't that argument ascribe an inherently restrictive and oppressive function to the institution of marriage?...
It does.
That doesn't mean that it can not also the "stimulate the well-being of society". Marriage exists because, at the most basic/primitive level, children and pregnant women are not self-sufficient. Someone has to provide for them, thus society has established certain expectations...
As a man, you are expected to protect and provide for any child you father as well as it's mother.
As a woman you are expected to be monogamous, so that your man can be sure that the children he is raising are in fact his own.
Failure to fulfill your obligations results in social condemnation and marginalization.
no subject
Not quite. More that if the definition of marriage is negotiable, let's negotiate. What exactly do you think marriage is?
But doesn't that argument ascribe an inherently restrictive and oppressive function to the institution of marriage?...
It does.
That doesn't mean that it can not also the "stimulate the well-being of society". Marriage exists because, at the most basic/primitive level, children and pregnant women are not self-sufficient. Someone has to provide for them, thus society has established certain expectations...
As a man, you are expected to protect and provide for any child you father as well as it's mother.
As a woman you are expected to be monogamous, so that your man can be sure that the children he is raising are in fact his own.
Failure to fulfill your obligations results in social condemnation and marginalization.