What Is Marriage?

2 Pages 522 Words

The technical definition of marriage incorporates ideas of legality and, originally, property rights with the idea of a union between two people. Because it is a legal contract it is defined and controlled by the government in the forms of licencing and regulations. These practices are used to guard against bigamy, incest and the marriage of adolescents. If you asked the average person on the street what marriage meant, the response could vary from a holy union in ‘God’s eyes,’ to a binding commitment to love one person for their life, or maybe even just a chance to gain citizenship in a country.
My point is that it’s very hard to distinguish what a marriage is when it varies from person. People’s intentions and motives vary. In my mind, a marriage between two people (male/female, male/male, female/female) should be a culmination of many different relations that you happen to share with one specific person. Therefore a marriage isn’t only for love, economic stability, or social status, but a combination of them all.
Unlike marriage, family is a completely personally and individually defined term. There is no contract or tangible exchange between family members. A family should provide the support structure essential for healthy, normal socialization, and remain through life. Conventional families vary in size, orientation, and in the normative ‘blood kin’ view point. As a standard view point, family is your ‘blood.’ But without heart, you can’t pump the blood. Love, encouragement, and stability also play key roles in what determines a family. A family is at best individuals who share love between themselves unconditionally, at worst only the blood in their veins.
In our society today I feel that these terms are being twisted and devalued. Individuals involved in committed same-sex relationships are denied the ability to be married in the eyes of the state, while nearly half of the married population at any g...