View image in fullscreen Kyle Richards, of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, separated this year from her husband of 27 years. For some women, heterosexual marriage is no longer a need, no longer a must, but something we want to do for love and comfort. Our understanding of commitment is markedly different from that of our parents, too ethical non-monogamy and polyamory have become more common relationship structures, even within heterosexual marriages. The men we married promised they were more emotionally mature than our fathers, more willing to change diapers and cooperate with our work schedules. Gen Xers and millennials started their relationships using big words like “equal partnership” and “co-parenting”. Marriage 3.0, then, was rife with the kinds of marriages that women of my generation were hoping to have. The orthodoxy of marriage was often women’s best option the most heartbreaking parts of Mad Men were always more of a documentary. My mother, and women like her, have had marriages like this for decades, their only path towards economic security, cultural power and social safety. The 1950s-onward housewife was comparatively happier, tolerating her husband’s indifference (at best) or abuse (at worst). After that, Marriage 2.0 came with color TVs and martinis at lunch, a more dignified version but still reductive. It was designed with female subjugation in mind and was often a woman’s only way to escape poverty or death – you can go watch Six on Broadway if you need to learn more about why this form of marriage sucked. The dawn of Marriage 1.0 was our most brutal form of union: an arrangement based on family, wealth and property. And though the world remains built for couples (have you ever tried to eat an entire sushi boat on your own?), we’re at those crossroads yet again. The evolution of marriageĮvery few decades, women reconsider the value of heterosexual marriage. So, while it’s too early to decide definitively that heterosexual marriage is dead – the post-pandemic wedding boom was just last year, and the anti-brides of 2023 are brides nonetheless – 2023 seemed to mark the beginning of the end of Marriage 3.0. For example, my divorce was finalized in February. All the most interesting women I know have divorced in the last few years. Overwhelmingly, the public narratives are ones in which the woman has grown tired of dragging along a husband who can’t keep up. Besides Brown v Brown(s), there was Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson, Britney Spears and Sam Asghari, Tina Knowles and Richard Lawson – even Kellyanne and George Conway fit the mold. The great Sister Wives schism sits in the canon of very public divorces that shared a theme this year: heterosexual couple ends marriage, seemingly because wife has had enough. Photograph: Michael Tran/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The musician and actor Teyana Taylor’s divorce filing against Iman Shumpert depicted him as angry about her career developments.
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