Similar arguments are being made contemporarily regarding same-sex marriage. Advocates at that time argued that the right to marry the person you love is a protected civil right. The Supreme Court’s ruling indicated that the individual freedom to marry is a right guaranteed by the constitution. Virginia in 1976- only slightly more than 40 years ago. These laws were struck down in the case of Loving v. is anti-miscegenation laws, which prohibited individuals of different racial backgrounds from marrying. Regardless of the intentionality behind the distribution of these benefits, it is clear that marriage is an inherently political institution.Ī prime example of this in the U.S. Limiting access to rights such as affordable health care to those who are married, and simultaneously penalizing those who do not restrict their sexuality in this way (for example, gay men, lesbians, and single heterosexuals) is a form of oppressive social control. Marriage privileges are meant to reward and legitimize certain relationships and sexual behaviors and in so doing stigmatize and marginalize others. Associating federal and state level benefits with marriage has the (un)intended consequence of legitimizing and supporting some relationships, while rendering others less important and invisible. According to a 1996 report by the United States General Accounting Office, 1049 federal laws benefit marriage relationships in the United States ( U.S. Despite the changing meanings of marriage, the role of cohabitation in contemporary relationships, and the rates of divorce, the institution of marriage remains materially important, as it dictates material privileges, resources, and benefits ( Alm, Dickert-Conlin, & Whittington, 1999 Chauncey, 2005 Coontz, 2000 Herek, 2006 LaSala, 2007). Marriage is undeniably an important cultural institution in the United States. Wash day for this group of GIs, somewhere in Europeįive English soldiers from the Dorsetshire Regiment enjoying a steaming hot bath, after helping to liberate Normandy - France, 1944.The Cultural Significance of Marriage: Material and Symbolic Two German soldiers washing their comrade in a stone troughĪ watchful eye being kept over eight shirtless young recruits, while they perform their morning ablutions Marines helping one another out in the showers Two shirtless young German soldiers shaving outside their barrack roomĮarly morning ablutions for German soldiers Two German soldiers at an outside washing troughĮarly morning ablutions on the Front Lineįour handsome German soldiers washing at a well
Troops were encouraged by their superiors to form close “buddy” relationships, and these bonds were often cemented through horseplay. These personal snapshots of World War II soldiers bathing and swimming are a record of the unselfconscious camaraderie between young men at war during a period when physical intimacy was less discouraged among straight men. If someone had a camera they’d pose together, to remember their closeness. Between battles soldiers were able to bathe in makeshift showers and in rivers, lakes and streams to swim catch a few rays, and just mess around like the kids they recently were.