Marriage: Whats Really Important
Naomi Chandler
ENG 150-SEEK BLK 1
Prof Karen Pitt
April 8th 2013
Marriage: What’s Really Important ?
According to Amy Grant “Every good relationship, especially marriage is based on respect. If it’s not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last long.” In her essay “About Marriage” Danielle Crittenden speaks about gender roles and its importance in marriage, claiming that the 1950’s portrayed what a marriage should be like and that the new found independence of women is causing the failure of marriages. This claim Crittenden makes holds great weight in her compelling argument about the reasons why gender roles are so important in marriage and why the 1950’s is such an ideal depiction of a “good marriage.” Stephanie Coontz, sheds light however, in her piece “What We Really Miss About the 1950’s,” on what marriage and family life was like in that era. Coontz in her essay, though showing that not everything about the 1950’s was as great and why it’s understandable for people to feel nostalgic about that time period, disagrees with Crittenden on the claim that marriages were at its best back then.
Crittenden portrays in her essay that the 1950’s is the ideal time period for marriages. The author believes that in that era marriages worked because the wives were the homemakers and caregivers and the husbands were the breadwinners and providers. According to Crittenden because women are now going into the workforce and doing the things that men would typically do husbands are no longer needed, saying; “there is nothing now left to bind a man to his wife and children-or a wife to her husband-but the very tenuous bonds of affection and sexual attraction.” (2). Crittenden believes that if the gender roles are discarded out of marriages with partners sharing equal responsibilities that there is no reason for the couple to be married saying that the partnership resembles a gay marriage. The 1970’s hit McMillan and wife, a TV show depicting
ENG 150-SEEK BLK 1
Prof Karen Pitt
April 8th 2013
Marriage: What’s Really Important ?
According to Amy Grant “Every good relationship, especially marriage is based on respect. If it’s not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last long.” In her essay “About Marriage” Danielle Crittenden speaks about gender roles and its importance in marriage, claiming that the 1950’s portrayed what a marriage should be like and that the new found independence of women is causing the failure of marriages. This claim Crittenden makes holds great weight in her compelling argument about the reasons why gender roles are so important in marriage and why the 1950’s is such an ideal depiction of a “good marriage.” Stephanie Coontz, sheds light however, in her piece “What We Really Miss About the 1950’s,” on what marriage and family life was like in that era. Coontz in her essay, though showing that not everything about the 1950’s was as great and why it’s understandable for people to feel nostalgic about that time period, disagrees with Crittenden on the claim that marriages were at its best back then.
Crittenden portrays in her essay that the 1950’s is the ideal time period for marriages. The author believes that in that era marriages worked because the wives were the homemakers and caregivers and the husbands were the breadwinners and providers. According to Crittenden because women are now going into the workforce and doing the things that men would typically do husbands are no longer needed, saying; “there is nothing now left to bind a man to his wife and children-or a wife to her husband-but the very tenuous bonds of affection and sexual attraction.” (2). Crittenden believes that if the gender roles are discarded out of marriages with partners sharing equal responsibilities that there is no reason for the couple to be married saying that the partnership resembles a gay marriage. The 1970’s hit McMillan and wife, a TV show depicting