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Marriage
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State Recognition of Relationships
In this course, Dr Rosie Nelson (University of Bristol) explores state recognition of relationships and the family. In the first lecture, we think about the concept, function and importance of marriage in society, today and historically. In the second lecture, we think about how marriage is related to and viewed by LGBTQ+ people. In the third lecture, we think about how queer theory views marriage. Next, we think about how to define gender in social research. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about how researchers can study gender effectively, as well as the challenges around doing this in quantitative and qualitative research.
Marriage
In this lecture, we think about the concept, function and importance of marriage, focusing in particular on: (i) some examples of how the state influences family life, including through child tax credits and tax benefits to married couples; (ii) some of the key legal elements related to marriage; (iii) the potential importance to individuals of their relationship’s social recognition once married; (iv) the expense of a typical Christian wedding forming part of the prestige of marriage; (v) the ‘once in a lifetime’ narrative of a Christian wedding; (vi) understanding a wedding to be a symbol of heterosexuality and a representative of heteronormativity.
Hello. My name is doctor Rosie Nelson,
00:00:07and I'm a lecturer in gender at the University of Bristol.
00:00:08Today,
00:00:12I'm going to be talking about the relationship of the state to the family.
00:00:13The state has a significant impact on the way in which
00:00:18families are generated and developed.
00:00:22So for example, you might think about how the state works with
00:00:24childcare benefits or maternity or shared parental leave.
00:00:29You might think about how the state
00:00:32provides tax breaks for married couples and so on so forth.
00:00:35One of central ways in which the state manages families and
00:00:40has a relationship to families is through the of marriage.
00:00:45So marriage is a legal contract between two individuals,
00:00:50which is recognized by the state.
00:00:54In having a marriage,
00:00:56then two individuals are basically signing up to be
00:00:58understood as a partnership under the eyes of the state,
00:01:02which has its own various implications in terms of things
00:01:05like tax breaks, legal recognition,
00:01:09the spouse is being able to make decisions on the behalf of one another,
00:01:13who is listed as a dependent, who is listed as an
00:01:19inheritance, and on so forth. So there are a lot of legal
00:01:22implications related to marriage
00:01:26that significant can impact on the individual's life course.
00:01:29In being married,
00:01:33it will change someone's life and relationship
00:01:34through the way in which the states bonds to that marriage
00:01:37at various different points.
00:01:41In addition to the legal benefits,
00:01:43then sociologists have illustrated how marriages can
00:01:44have lots of different implications
00:01:47in terms of our social recognition of that union.
00:01:50So the first example is exactly that. The social recognition a
00:01:53union is important to many people,
00:01:58being understood to be a couple, her husband and a wife,
00:02:00or as we will talk about in a moment, a wife and a wife, for example.
00:02:03This can have a huge
00:02:08importance for those individuals in terms of how
00:02:10they see themselves,
00:02:13how they rate in society and how they respond and react to
00:02:15the people around them and through basing their identities
00:02:19on the fact that they are married. Of course, another related
00:02:23way in which marriage impacts those individuals is in the
00:02:28fact that they are legally recognized as we've talked
00:02:31about. They will have a access to a tax break. They
00:02:34will have the ability to make decisions should one of them
00:02:38into hospital and being incapacitated,
00:02:41and they will be
00:02:44signing many forms listing themselves as legally married
00:02:46effectively which will
00:02:49influence the way in which their finances work,
00:02:51healthcare works, and so on.
00:02:54Another way in which sociologists have considered
00:02:57how marriage can impact individuals is in the fact that
00:03:00the act of marriage, the wedding involves a huge of
00:03:03social recognition and celebration.
00:03:07So if you think about a traditional Christian wedding
00:03:10that you might have been to, you might have seen yourself.
00:03:13There are so many traditions that go into that and so many
00:03:17rituals that go into that. So the first of which,
00:03:21the first thing that many people talk about in relation
00:03:24to marriage is the fact that it's incredibly expensive and
00:03:26that can be a part of
00:03:30prestige of a wedding, for example, how significant
00:03:33an investment that the couple has made into it or that the
00:03:36couple family has made into it.
00:03:39A traditional Christian wedding would also see the bride
00:03:42processed down the aisle wearing a white wedding dress
00:03:45to her awaiting husband to be. A Christian wedding is also
00:03:48often portrayed as a once in a lifetime event. You know,
00:03:53it's not that we're going to be multiple weddings or that we
00:03:56can anticipate this happening again,
00:03:59but rather the kind of narrative and understanding of
00:04:01a Christian wedding is that this is a occurrence in the
00:04:04life of those two individuals.
00:04:07And there will typically be someone a celebrant or a religious
00:04:10affiliate who will ask the couple to make vows and
00:04:16promises to one another.
00:04:19There'd be other traditions that one would expect to take
00:04:20part in such as the father giving away the bride,
00:04:23the first dance after the wedding,
00:04:27the choice of the song that the individuals
00:04:29dance to, and things like
00:04:32the cutting of the cake and the fact that they will have a
00:04:35three tiered wedding cake quite traditionally.
00:04:37So when we interrogate this from the perspective a
00:04:41sociologist and particularly from the perspective of a queer sociologist
00:04:44who was informed by LGBTQ sexual
00:04:49then we might understand weddings to be one of the
00:04:53greatest examples of heteronormativity
00:04:57action.
00:05:00So in this sense, weddings are symbolic of heterosexuality.
00:05:01The word heteronormativity or the concept heteron mativity
00:05:07means that it a social current that believes it is more
00:05:11normal or usual be heterosexual.
00:05:15So we can see this in lots of different ways,
00:05:19in the way in which children are raised, and gendered,
00:05:21and told, or it had to be boys and girls in the way in
00:05:25which movies often depict romances between heterosexual couples.
00:05:29In the way in which adverts often show a family dynamic
00:05:34with a man and a woman as parents, for example. You know,
00:05:38heteronormative city is all around us,
00:05:42but weddings in particular are considered to be one of the
00:05:45great examples of heteronormative in action,
00:05:48because of the way that the
00:05:51bride is given away to the groom,
00:05:54because of the way the father gives away the bride because of
00:05:56the promises and gender dynamics implicit in a wedding ceremony.
00:06:00
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Nelson, R. (2023, June 22). State Recognition of Relationships - Marriage [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/state-recognition-of-relationships
MLA style
Nelson, R. "State Recognition of Relationships – Marriage." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 22 Jun 2023, https://massolit.io/courses/state-recognition-of-relationships