Katie Solomon

Writing Sample (Introduction to longer paper):

Marriage has been and remains a hugely powerful institution in the United
States. However, many Americans have begun to question traditional
understandings of marriage and engage in controversial debates about the
meaning of marriage, who should be allowed to marry, what a marriage should
look like, and if the institution should exist at all. Beginning in the late 1980s, gay
marriage was publicly introduced as part of the agenda of the lesbian and gay
movement (Bernstein and Taylor 2013:3). Those in favor of legalizing gaymarriage criticized the disparity in benefits afforded to legally recognized couples
compared to homosexual couples that were not granted access to this institution.
However, many individuals disapproved of this political agenda for its implicit
acceptance of mainstream values and its advancement of traditional
relationships and patriarchal family forms (Bernstein and Taylor 2013:3). The
institution of marriage is not only plagued by the fundamental inequalities that
exist regarding access to its privileged state but also by flaws in its basic
composition. The socially constructed ideas regarding the organization of a family
devalue and ultimately dismiss the validity of relationships that do not comply with
the narrow perspectives present in contemporary American society. The

privileging of the institution of marriage and ultimately its existence perpetuate an

ideology based on oppression and exclusion rather than the ideals of freedom,
equality and compassion that the United States claims to uphold.