Paul Wilczynski's Observations

AskPhilosophers.org on gay marriage

A philosopher comments on the subject of gay marriage.

... There was a time, and it was not very long ago, when the contract of marriage essentially gave a man ownership of his wife. A man could not be prosecuted for beating his wife any more than he could be prosecuted for beating his donkey; he could not be prosecuted for raping her (rape itself was so understood that it would have been regarded as impossible by definition for a man to rape his wife); women had essentially no rights as regarded property; and so on and so forth. When marriage is so understood, and when the rights and roles of the two parties are so clearly defined by gender, then it is easy enough to see why marriage must be between a man and a woman. How would you know who owned whom otherwise? But all of that has changed, and we would now regard it, in retrospect, as deeply unjust that women should have been so treated. That is to say, our understanding of the kind of relationship marriage is has changed. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:05 AM