Female Supremacy Articles - Page 2

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MARRIAGE, in the not-too-distant days of yore, was a financial transaction, not unlike glorified prostitution. A father would trade the hand of his Daughter for, say, a team of oxen and a dairy cow. Often, the groom was decades older and no dead ringer for Tom Cruise. The Bride, of course, would have no say in the matter. A ring would be placed on the fourth finger of Her right hand, so the world would understand that She belonged to someone. That She, like the oxen and the dairy cow, was someone's property.

Thanks to the work of Elizabeth Stanton, Victoria Woodhull, Margaret Sanger, Gloria Steinem, and other less heralded Feminists, much progress has been made in the last century or so. Women now get to choose not only whom they marry, but if they will marry at all. Dowries have gone the way of virgin brides and arranged marriages. Wives no longer vow to honor and obey their husbands. Many choose not to adopt the husband's surname.

Still, marriage, as currently constituted in the Western world, is a vestige of the aforementioned days of yore. The wearing of white, for example, represents virgin purity-quite outmoded in these enlightened times. And the vaunted diamond wedding ring, while big and shiny and expensive, remains a symbol of ownership.

Clearly, we still have a long way to go. In the next few chapters, we'll examine where that journey may take us.

POLYGAMY