Sex, Love, Marriage

Traditionally the legitimate arena for sex and love, marriage has undergone dramatic changes in its function during the last generation. Birth control and the Women's Movement have jointly altered the dominant perspective on the respective roles of men and women within relationships. Marriage has received detailed, and sometimes harshly critical analysis. The disassociation of sex from old social forms and from its reproductive consequences has weakened the prohibitions against sex outside of marriage: The taboo against fornication has been essentially obliterated throughout much of Western society; in some eyes, the strictures against adultery have lost currency. The substantially wider latitude given to the expression of sexuality may foster adjustments in conventional assumptions linking emotional and sexual intimacy.

The greater freedom accorded sexual choices has led to the recognition that social, sexual and emotional commitments are largely, if not wholly, independent. Even within marriage, the identity of love and sex is not necessary. The analysis and justification of more "open" sexual arrangements has, in fact, led to two distinct descriptions of the relation between love and sex, according to Richard Wasserstrom. Under one view, sex and love are separate. Although sex is likely to be more enjoyable when the partners have affection for one another, it is possible to enjoy sex a great deal with partners whom one does not love. Under the other vie

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logical coherence. The denotative meaning of marriage shifts depending upon one's perspective and depending upon what is at issue. Marriage has survived for a long time under those conditions. Presently, however, the connotations of marriage have come under attack, as much through the pressure of developments in society as through the intellectual efforts of its critics. Its logical coherence is one thing, but the social coherence of marriage, the agreedupon status that appears to determine it functions, may be vanishing. Inevitably, then, the expectations persons bring into make will undergo substantial change. Individuals may begin to enter marriage as a form of longlasting companionship, part sexual relationship and part friendship. It will be increasingly understood, in such a context, that the combination of affection and lovemaking that the relationship supplies is not necessary unique to the marriage arrangement. Marriage of that type may implicitly or explicitly involve limitations on its exclusivity. The point is not to make predictions about some imaginary future, but to show that the mere fact of analyzing marriage into its affectional and sexual components suggests changes in behavior that could occur

Category: Psychology - S