which makes me wonder why anybody would either want to call it marriage
I could make exactly the same argument about divorce-able marriage and wonder why would anyone call this get-out-whenever-you-want-to arrangement “marriage” :-D
The point is, the “thick layer of social expectations” is not immutable.
If traditional marriage is a sparrow, then marriage with no-fault divorce is a penguin, and 5 college kids sharing a house is a centipede. Type specimen, non-type specimen, wrong category.
Social expectations are mutable, yes—what of it? Do you think it’s desirable or inevitable that marriage just become a fancy historical legal term for income splitting on one’s tax return? Do you think sharing a house in college is going to be, or ought to be, hallowed and encouraged?
I could make exactly the same argument about divorce-able marriage and wonder why would anyone call this get-out-whenever-you-want-to arrangement “marriage” :-D
Agreed, no fault divorce laws were a huge mistake.
I could make exactly the same argument about divorce-able marriage and wonder why would anyone call this get-out-whenever-you-want-to arrangement “marriage” :-D
The point is, the “thick layer of social expectations” is not immutable.
If traditional marriage is a sparrow, then marriage with no-fault divorce is a penguin, and 5 college kids sharing a house is a centipede. Type specimen, non-type specimen, wrong category.
Social expectations are mutable, yes—what of it? Do you think it’s desirable or inevitable that marriage just become a fancy historical legal term for income splitting on one’s tax return? Do you think sharing a house in college is going to be, or ought to be, hallowed and encouraged?
Agreed, no fault divorce laws were a huge mistake.
From which point of view?