While flipping stations in the car last week, I heard radio talk-show host Tom Leykis say something that made me think. To paraphrase: "It's not fair for women to work; now they get 50% of the money and they still have 100% of the poontang." [Is that a bad word?]
This statement prompted an analogy in my mind. To use the (now-defunct) SAT format:
work:women :: pornography:men
Work is to women what pornography is to men. Perhaps along with pornography we should also include prostitutes, many dating relationships, and other sorts of substitutes for sex within a marriage.
By this analogy I don't mean to say that women working is morally equivalent to men going to prostitutes. My point is that women turn to jobs to fulfill the needs/desires (food, shelter, &c.) that were historically met by their husbands, just as men turn to pornography and prostitutes to fulfill the needs/desires (basically, sex) that were historically met by their wives.
Obviously there is more to a healthy marriage than money and sex, but to the immature, greedy, and lustful, aren't those the most important things? (Further, most divorces are caused by money problems or sex problems, so maybe there isn't much more in most marriages, after all.)
A rather substantial fraction of divorces are caused by factors other than money and sex these days, Michael. It's hard to get really reliable calipers on these things -- people tend to fib about the reasons for their divorces -- but among the causes least often explored analytically are meddling by in-laws, occupational pressures that separate the spouses either physically or emotionally, and irresolvable tensions over whether or when to have children. There's a good chance that one of these is a greater marriage-sunderer than money.
FP: Well, "occupational pressures" is money, and tension over kids is sex. As for in-laws, I thought they were already illegal?
When marriage is banned only outlaws will have inlaws...
I think most if not all divorces are really about money, sex, or kids. In-law meddling isn't a problem if you don't let it be. Often the meddling is about money, sex or kids. I mean what do they meddle in? How you paint the house? Or how you raise the kids or spend you money?
Religion can cause irreconcilable differences, but most of those problems were there going in.
I think you observation is brilliant. You may want to also consider that a woman works to fulfill needs the husband historically could not provide. Then there is the matter of women who also enjoy pornography. Overall your logic makes a lot of sense. Good job.
Yep, poontang is a bad word.
Or at least an indelicate euphemism--it's probably derived from the French putain, meaning "prostitute."