I just missed coming of age in the sixties. Thank goodness!
Marriage has always been more of an economic relationship through history rather than love. The idea that the partners need to be in love is a rather new idea. The idea that one marries only for love has usually been considered foolish until the last century. To this day it doesn't guarantee success.
Marriages were formed for political and econimic gain as well as to make certain that the product of the marriage - the support and inheritance claims (children) were controlled. One had to know who the father was so he would support the child and endow it. Therefore the sexual activities of the woman had to be controlled. DNA is a rather new device.
Since the advent of "romantic love" as the primary reason for marriage the unspoken dictum has been "if you want her, marry her." Since the male initiates the choice and the woman's consent is a response - he has to want her enough to make that initial proposition. It's no longer a negotiation between the young couple's parents.
The "free love" of the Baby Boomers eviserated the need for a choice on either side. It make love into sex without love. Temporary passion is not love - it's sex.
My mother's message to me was: keep yourself worthy of a worthy man. (It worked wonderfully!)
As Laura Schlesinger says living together is not marriage - it's being an unpaid whore.
Of course this "onus" on the woman is considered grossly unfair to the woman as well as anachronistic by the feminists. However, people are people the feminists notwithstanding. The basic human responses haven't changed.
If you give it away freely, it's not worth much.
>>As Laura Schlesinger says living together is not marriage - it's being an unpaid whore.<<
While I like Dr. Laura, for the most part, this is untrue and crude and misogynistic.
Don't throw stones, unless of course YOU are without sin.
I've always thought prostitutes were smarter and more moral. At least they're getting something out of it, guaranteed! How is giving it away for nothing more moral than getting paid for it?
"Since the advent of 'romantic love'"
Actually, the idea of romantic love has been around a long time.
In the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament there is a description of a couple who have great desire for each other, which differs greatly from your description of marriage merely as an "economic relationship".