(Re-Post) Will Traditional Marriage Always be a Thing

(This article was originally posted to dot429 on April 30, 2015)

Yesterday, the Supreme Court started hearing arguments about marriage equality. One of the main arguments against marriage equality is this notion of the “traditional marriage”. So, what is a “traditional marriage”? How did this notion come about? Why is it so heavily reinforced by the ultra-conservative? Is there really such a thing as traditional marriage?

What is a “traditional marriage”?

What is currently is considered a traditional marriage is also akin to having the nuclear family. So, what’s a nuclear family? Its two parents and (typically) 2 children. The idea is that you get the nuclear family from a traditional marriage. A traditional marriage pairing is typically two people of the opposite gender. The idea, as I was told as a child is that a man and a woman fall in love. They then get married and have a family. This is the concept I was told when I was a little girl. I was also told that I had to be married in a church.

More importantly, when it comes to politics, the ultra- conservative with in the current Republican Party have taken that concept and run with it. After all, there’s nothing more wholesome than the traditional marriage and the traditional family. Even going so far as to say that traditional marriage is stated in the Bible.

Ok, that last sentence was hard to write with a straight face.

Here’s the problem with this belief: what is considered by many to be a traditional marriage isn’t all that old in the scope of marriage. Yeah, that’s right, the heteronormative, monocentric marriage model is not only new, given the scope of humanity, and it’s also not really talked about the Bible.

So, let’s start with what kinds of marriage is talked about in the Christian holy book (and religion of choice for the right-wing) the Bible. If we look at the Old Testament, we see that marriage wasn’t just one man and one woman. Frequently, it was one man and many women. Polygamy was very common in the Bible. It certainly didn’t follow a monocentric culture. You would often hear about some major figure in the Bible (like, say, King Solomon) and their many wives. The Bible certainly doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about a one woman, one man model. It also reinforces the concept that women are property. This belief persisted until the Equal Rights Amendment and the Women’s Rights Movement. In some places women are still viewed as property (that does include in the United States as well).

Marriage didn’t have any religious connotation until the 1500’s. Shortly thereafter, Henry VIII introduced divorce to marriage. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that marrying for love was a thing. Before then, no one officially was married, or if they were, it was a contract between families.  Oftentimes, this contract was to insure the transfer of land, power, or money. In Ancient Greece, marriage was strictly for having children.

Kind of makes the whole current notion of traditional marriage rather silly, don’t you think?

Of course, this is coming from a bi/pansexual polyamorous girl. The concept of traditional anything seems a little strange to me. The idea that marriage must always follow heteronormativity seems even more obscure and off the wall. The idea that being gay is a sin is starting to be questioned more and more as we get more Biblical scholars looking in to what was really said in the Bible. It may turn out that people were misinterpreting the Bible.

Gee, imagine that, people pushing their own personal beliefs and justifying them with religion. Now, if only I can think of any of the other instances this seems to happen…