Traditional Marriage Role Models example essay topic
441 words
The traditional marriage role models that have been with us for several thousand years, with little change until recent years, have been based on the feudal fiefdom: the husband is the lord and the wife and children are serfs and vessels. For thousands of years, women were permitted no rights, and were even bought and sold like cattle. Marrying for love was taboo and falling in love was a disgusting thing permitted only to the peasants. If a woman of nobility fell in love, she faced dire consequences. In some countries, Like Saudi Arabia, they still do. Marriages were usually arrainged to serve the political or financial advantage of the parents. Some of the old traditions and superstitions of marriage were created with the intent of protecting the interests of parents in these arrainged marra iges. It was considered to be bad luck for a man to see his bride before the wedding, in case she proved to be an absolute dog. Batchelor parties were invented to get the groom as horny as possible, to make him accomodating to accepting whatever bride his parents arrainged for him. The marriage ceremony was then imposed as a black magik ritual to impress on the couple that they were bound to each other for the rest of their lives. The happiness of the couple was not even a consideration. They were simply to do as they were told.
This usually amounted to accepting a marriage as a formality, an obligation to produce heirs and carry on the family name. The man, and sometimes both parties, would then proceed to indulge in affairs to get their ya-yas out. Obtaining one's gratification in the marriage was not even part of the deal. Lords and barons would often rape peasant girls with impunity, while their wives were untouched, except for deliberate efforts to inseminate her, in hope that she might bear a son. By accepting this model, people are manipulated into accepting their kings, barons and other tyrants as natural and right. If the frustration did not leave you insecure and pliable, then local lords and baron, ambitious for power, would keep tabs on what you did in the shadows, in hopes of being able to blackmail or embarrass you into cooperation.
Can a relationship model designed to serve the needs of feudal power possibly be appropriate for a free people? I think not. Can traditions and patterns of relationship designed to serve the needs of power possibly be conducive to happy marriages? I think not.
