Thru the end of the 20th century,
marriage was the most common form of sexual relationship.
About 90% of adults in the 20th-century America
tried marriage at least once.
But we might try other patterns in the 21st century.
The emergence of new patterns of sexual
relationships
will be due in part to the decline of organized religion.
Many people who were uncertain whether they should get married
were pushed over the edge by the power of religion in their families.
And it used to be assumed that everyone would have a religion.
But in the future, these assumptions will no longer hold true.
Many people will live without religious connections.
And many people will avoid traditional marriage.
The institution of marriage is controlled by
state legislatures.
In some states the standard marriage contract has hundreds of pages.
Almost no couples ever have occasion to read all the laws
they are agreeing to follow when they get married.
And few people realize that their contracts
can be changed by the state without their knowledge or consent.
Whenever new domestic-relations laws are passed,
they apply to all married couples in that state,
even those couples who would never have agreed
to be bound by such new regulations if they had been consulted.
And legislators continue to attempt to solve domestic problems
by adding new provisions to the marriage contract.
Thus, in the future more people will likely
resist
the interference of the state in their personal lives
by not signing up as official couples in the first place.
They will continue to have their personal relationships,
but they will not apply to have their relationships licenced by the
state.
We see this trend already beginning in some
sub-cultures.
Young people in minority communities are resisting marriage in droves.
And politicians cannot force people to enter wedlock.
So instead of bemoaning the decline of traditional marriage,
we ought to get ready for new patterns of relationship.
Will we create new relationship-structures that are even better than
marriage?
What aspects of traditional marriage need to be changed
by creating new patterns that help people to love better?
166 IMPRINTED SEXUAL
FANTASIES: A NEW KEY FOR
SEXOLOGY by JAMES PARK
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Sexual
Fantasies: A New Key for Sexology by James Park.
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