Enmanuel Perez
Freshman Seminar 101
Final Project
12/17/12
The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage
According to the article “The Wedding as a Status Symbol”, Andrew Cherlin states that “A wedding was an event at which two kinship groups formed an alliance. More recently, it has been an event organized and paid for by parents” (856). In this section of the article Andrew is stating that even the way people have their weeding’s have changed in this modern era. Andrews says that wedding has recently lost it’s meaning from being a form of alliance to just being an event paid by parents for their son/daughter to get married. Later on in this section of the article Andrew states that “The wedding, it seem, has become an important symbol of the partners’ personal achievements and a stage in their self-development” (856) This shows how people are not getting married for the right reasons. People are getting married because it gives them a personal achievement. It makes them feel like they are following a tradition by doing what everyone else has been doing.
How My View on Gay Marriage Changed. By: BLANKENHORN, DAVID
In this article David Blankenhorn talks about how his view on gay marriage has changed over the time. Blankenhorn talks about how gay marriage or same sex marriage can actually be a positive thing in how it can unite people together. According to the article it says “For me, the most important is the equal dignity of homosexual love. I don't believe that opposite-sex and same-sex relationships are the same, but I do believe, with growing numbers of Americans, that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same-sex relationships is over” (D.B). In the quote Blankenhorn clearly says that he does not agree that same sex and opposite sex relationships is correct but he does agree that criticizing same sex relationships in a derogatory manner is over.