Piece Comment

Review of Stephanie Coontz: Marriage Today Ain't So Bad


This timely topic hit the spot with people like myself, members of Generation X. With an out right acceptance that sexual orientation is not as narrow as the past dictated it to be, with an acceptance that many of our parents practiced the term "divorce" on an unprecedented scale 30 years ago, we struggle with the notion that we are without a proper family model in life.

I personally like this piece because I constantly battle the notions of what is right and wrong when it comes to deciding how I should go about finding a life partner. I am constantly ridden with guilt. My parents come from a strong practice of arranged marriages, a practice I am constantly forced to question. However, I am finding over time with the help of talks like this one, that the concerns and values aren't as different as I thought regardless of how one finds a life partner. Regardless of whether one had an arranged marriage or love marriage, there is a country-wide assumption that our country's family values are on the decline because people stopped adhering to what is "right."

Professor Koontz sets the biases straight by using her title as a historian to talk about the institution of marriage in various cultures, and how we understand the word marriage today.
Professor Koontz effectively dissects the word "right," and takes apart the biases that make it appear that there is a perfect way to creating a sexual relationship, family, or single life. She has ridden me of mounds of guilt, and has stepped up as an academic to tell everyone that whatever you feel is okay!
Thank you KUOW!