November 24, 2003

I Demand a Footnote

David Brooks' column on marriage is generating some heated discussion in the blogosphere. Conrad at The Gweilo Diaries calls it "self-rightous pontificating." What I can't understand is how a writer who calls for legalizing gay marriage, like Brooks does, is considered a member of the Religious Right according to Conrad. Last time I checked, the RR don't want gay couples to get hitched. He might have been distracted by his pursuit of a "hat trick" for the weekend. Stephen Green writes, "What we think about sex reveals a lot of what we think about ourselves." We don't have to play pop psychologists with Brooks. We have a pretty good idea what thinks about himself. He thinks he's a better person because of his marriage. Green thinks he's a better person because he's married. In a blogosphere that doesn't shun from making moral judgements on whether to go to war, some have a problem with others making moral judgements on sex outside of marriage. Brooks' intro is an argument for keeping sex sacred. Commodifing sex reduces the beautiful act to masturbation with someone else's body.

There's one final item I have to point out. Brooks continues the "Half of All Marriages End in Divorce" Myth when he writes, "Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce." Where's the citation? What study has shown this? I wrote a couple posts on this [and here]. No one has yet shown me anything to support this meme.

"The Power of Marriage"