[sharkbird2]

I think it's such a huge topic that it's really hard to summarize on an online message board, but in very broad terms I think you could say that the feeling I have is that there used to be a social contract between men and women where men were supposed to be A, B, and C, and women were supposed to be X, Y and Z. But now it seems that only men are still expected to be A, B and C - plus maybe D, while women are instead 'free' to be whatever they want. So you still have to be a 'real man', but she doesn't have to be a 'proper woman'.

The weird thing is that I'm not really pro gender roles, I'm much more pro individual freedom, so I hate being the one to make this argument. But I do think that there will always be some differences between men and women, and I think we are hurting ourselves a lot as a society by refusing to acknowledge that.

[blargthorwars]

You express the problem very charitably.

My only small antidote would be to allow people to have a marriage that could be more explicit if the partners chose to. If they wanted a 'till death do us part' marriage, then that should be allowed.

[mercer]

Is that currently not allowed?

[voskresenie]

well, no. You can say that's what you're doing, and so can your future wife, but it's still incredibly easy to back out of if you change your mind, with few legal, economic, or social barriers to doing so.

On the one hand, these barriers can keep people trapped in truly abusive situations, and it is important for such people to be able to escape. But on the other, 'I don't love my husband/wife anymore', is not any great horror, and I'd hazard that most people who are happily married till death have had at least one long period, potentially of multiple years, where they don't feel as though they love their spouse. But they work through it and things improve. There's something about being 'trapped' with someone that motivates people to make things work in a way that they wouldn't if they know there is an out.

[benterix]

I believe the world ha changed and there is no way this would work in our culture anymore. Personally I treat not being divorced as a kind of achievement, but I realized many if not most people don't share my sentiment.

[voskresenie]

Yeh, I agree. I don't think there's any sort of legal solution to the problem, since the problem is social, not legal. I was just trying to explain what I think the other person was getting at.

[IAmBroom]

But don't annulment and divorce provide two paths to non-lifelong marriage?