Here we go again the Tories bigging up the institution of marriage…
Tory frontbencher David Willetts said government policy should aim to tackle social breakdown by restoring marriage as a “more widespread institution”.
The Tories are to publish their ideas on the family in a green paper.
This is part and parcel of the hideous ‘broken society’ myth. The Tories bang on about the institution of marriage like a stuck record when what really has screwed society up is neoliberalism. The green paper includes:
Other ideas include the offering of relationship advice at civil ceremonies.
Further bilge from Willetts
The aspiration of marriage is becoming harder to achieve,” he said.
“Instead of it becoming just what you do in your 20s, it has become like scaling Mount Everest, a sort of great moral endeavour – and something that requires a lot of time and money. We think we need to ease some of the pressures.
“There is quite a lot of evidence coming from America about how we are in danger of heading towards a society where middle-class people get married and people on low and erratic incomes don’t get married, and that in turn leads to a divergence of a whole host of other outcomes.
“In my view it would be extremely dangerous if marriage became something only for the affluent elite and that is what will happen, unless we try to get some kind of policy that restores it as a more widespread institution as we had in the past.”
Yes indeed there is a class dynamic on the issue of marriage as it is damn well expensive. But surely it is about choice in how people live their lives as opposed to corralling people into marriage. Here’s an idea reduce the financial gap between rich and poor not lecture people in the supposed mythical wonders of marriage and the family. Give people a proper standard of living and let them make up their minds about relationships, kids and families. Treat people equally as opposed to giving tax breaks to married couples (though it seems they are reneging on that incentive.
But overall and core to these reactionary with the whiff of Victorian morality is the emphasis on the rigid hetero nuclear family. And that’s what worries me will we be seeing a return to the reactionary politics of yonder? And let’s not forget the vile Section 28 and the insidious homophobia that was rampant in the Tory Party. That worries me.
The proposals from the Tories is about re-discovering the traditional family, along with rigid and fixed gender roles and the sexual division of labour. So…lets do the time warp and go back to those repressed and straitjacketed times of the 1950s. And in the green paper there is also an emphasis on the patriarchal father figure.
But Mr Willetts argued that marriage helped couples stay together, for the benefit of the children.
Really? Well, countless people in the real world, a world that Willetts doesn’t seem to inhabit, were brought up in families where parents stayed together precisely for the ‘benefit of the children’. And believe me it was not beneficial. What about happiness of the parent(s)? If the Tories care about the welfare of kids then surely having this sticking plaster approach to marriage will only exacerbate misery and distress for everyone? Will a woman be expected to love, honour and obey her husband even if he is violent to her? If a woman does manage to get away they will be facing a benefits system that will be even more meagre than the one we have now. Oh, the whiff, the undeniable stench of the Dickensian workhouse is ever closer. Does it matter whether people are married, living together? Does it matter if the people bringing up kids aren’t in a hetero relationship? Does it matter if the parent(s) are lesbians or gay men? No it bloody shouldn’t and neither should it concern Willetts!! Improve financial security, support and help as opposed to imposing own reactionary ideology.
These proposals from the Tories put people especially women and kids under the under the patriarchal cosh as what the Tories are spouting is one big fat moral crusade!
Brilliant post, my thoughts on the issue exactly.
Thanks Hannah!!
“the hideous ‘broken society’ myth”
It’s just amazing what people will look straight past in order to maintain a world-view.
“Who are you going to believe, the Guardian or your lyin’ eyes ?”
[...] As I said before and will reiterate the points, it is about choice in how people live their lives as opposed to corralling people into marriage. Here’s an idea reduce the financial gap between rich and poor not lecture people in the supposed mythical wonders of marriage and the family. Give people a proper standard of living and let them make up their minds about relationships, kids and families. Treat people equally as opposed to giving tax breaks to married couples (though it seems they are reneging on that incentive. [...]