Flash Insight Into Same Sex Marriage Resistance

[Demeter]

It's the stupid patriarchy, again, rearing its ugly head.

When two people of the same sex commit to each other, that would literally constitute a Marriage Of Equals. Now, if such a situation were to become part of the culture, slipping under the radar, so to speak, then the whole argument of Patriarchy: Men and Women are inherently unequal, and thus must be treated unequally; goes right down the tubes.

Such a convoluted justification for Protecting Marriage in its present legal form is truly just another attempt to protect male privilege and women's inequality in the courts and the economic scheme of things.

I truly doubt that the right-wing religious wackos have reasoned this out. Such insight would tend to blow their whole paradigm out of the water. But this is what their gut is telling them.

We see resistance to the concept of Marriage of Equals in family court all the time: there are the traditionalists, with centuries of precedence to support their prejudice, and the modernists, patiently trying to tear down all those centuries of Might makes Right.

It's going to be a long haul. After all, we still don't have the ERA, do we?

[Sherman A1]

1. If we were dealing with logic

your argument makes complete sense, however we are dealing with emotion, fear and "pseudo faith". The ability to reason with any of those is exceptionally limited.

[Berry Cool]

2. Me? Frankly, I don't think it's that complicated.

I attribute all homophobia, of all kinds, to one simple fact:

A whole lot of people can't get over the horrible sense of the willies they get over the very idea of a couple of guys doing each other you-know-where.

All the rest? Just window dressing. Including all the religious mumbo-jumbo they use to justify it.

Goes a long way, doesn't it, to explain why the hostility against lesbians is not nearly as great. But still, they mustn't allow lesbians to marry either, because if they did, they'd have to allow gay men to do it too, and you know what that would be: essentially saying that, um, the above activity is not only OK but wonderful.

THAT's what they REALLY can't cope with. All other prejudice stems from that.

Just my humble opinion.

[Glorfindel]

5. I agree. The "perpetuation of the human race" argument is just garbage...

I just heard a radio story on NPR from Oregon about an 81-year-old widower and his 80-year-old divorcee bride. It was a kind of "aw, ain't that sweet?" puff piece. If the prevailing logic were followed, these two people should NOT BE ALLOWED TO MARRY, since obviously they can't have babies. Your "humble opinion" is exactly correct.
:toast:

[Demeter]

6. Power Is The Central, Driving Force

The power to push other people around is the only motivator for Authoritarians (fascists, if you will). Stealing power or its instruments (land, money, children, elections) is the preferred way of gaining it. If one has to actually perform a useful service, be creative, or save, then one is not POWERFUL! Marrying into power, especially if one can abuse the marriage hostage, is a secondary route.

If homophobia were as simple as you say, then there would be NO instances of right-wing deviance. And the record is rife with such instances. I'd bet that even in their deviances, it is power that colors the transactions.

[ovidsen]

3. A partial explanation

I bet a lot of men and women even like the "king of the home" ratiolalization. Somebody's gotta be the alpha dog, and that alpha dog's gotta be a guy.

But I truly think lots of it has to do with repressed latent homosexuality. It's mainly men who scream loudest about the "sanctity of traditional marriage". And I bet a lot of these men have occasionally had erotic thoughts about other men. Thanks to social conditioning, they were thoroughly disgusted by these "impure" thoughts, and so they lash out at what they see as the source of their discomfort. Gays who accept and even celebrate their sexuality.

That's the only reason I can think of for their rabid hostility to gay marriage; something that rationally wouldn't affect their world at all.

[unblock]

4. if i show ANY respect whatsoever to gays, someone might fuck me up the ass

i think that's the real logic, and anything more is giving far too much credit to a simple bigotry.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Most gays don't engage in anal sex

After all, at least half are lesbians :rofl:

[unblock]

8. lesbians can use strap-ons :)

:rofl:

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. So can heterosexual women

If we let straight women marry, they might strap one on and.... Oh, the horror!!

[unblock]

10. that's why it's important not to show them any respect, either!

it's hard werk being a bigot!

:rofl:

[Dhalgren]

11. I think at least part of it has to do with the fear men have that

women don't really need them. Heterosexual women can easily express their love for other heterosexual women and have no problem with it. Men have a much more difficult time doing this. If two heterosexual women decided to get "married", they could have heterosexual sex as much as they liked and still have a "life partner" they loved and respected and who loved and respected them. They could have children and two incomes and retirement and insurance and on and on. Men aren't really necessary except for occasional sex - and that sex would be at the convenience and under the control of the woman. I think that THAT is the "attack on families" that the homophobes are talking about. They can't explain it in that way, because it has no "right and wrong" to it, only power and position...

[Demeter]

12. There's Too Big a Gap Between What Women Need From Men

and what they actually get.

[Dhalgren]

13. Most men don't make good "partners" with women.

A woman tends to have to fill-in all of the man's "gaps", but the man rarely fills-in the woman's. If women ever just took a really long, hard look at what men take and what they give, as opposed to the female take and give, they would opt for something better (and almost anything would be better). Now, there are exceptions to this, some women are not "givers" and some men are, but on the whole, women really get the short end of any heterosexual "relationship"...