Santa Monica College Sociology Traditional Marriage Discussion

Chapter 9 in the Wade & Ferree text suggests that “traditional marriage” is a loaded phrase. 

Discuss: 

What do people usually mean when they use the phrase? Is that type of marriage, in fact, traditional? By what measure? 

Did marriages at the time of the idealized “traditional marriage,” in fact, live up to the ideal? 

Could you argue that other marital practices are more or equally traditional? Which ones and how so? 

What makes a marriage “traditional” versus “modern”? What is at stake in the public conversation about “traditional marriage”?