Women's Studies 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Marriage Law, Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill, Consciousness Raising
10 Apr 2020
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Women"s studies 1021: october 16 - reading notes. People view marriage as a matter of private decision making and domestic arrangements. At the same time that any marriage represents personal love and commitment, it participates in public order. To be marriage, the institution requires public affirmation. The public sees itself and its own interest reflected in the couple"s action. Men and women take up the public roles of husbands and wives along with the private joys and duties. So far as it is a public institution, it is the vehicle through which the apparatus of state can shape the gender order. The whole system of attribution and meaning that we call gender relies on and to a great extent derives from the structuring provided by marriage. Marriage has also been instrumental in articulating and structuring distinctions grouped under the name of race. For a long time it was illegal to marry someone outside of your race or ethnicity.
