Reviews for When your wife says no: Forced sex in Marriage

The average rating for When your wife says no: Forced sex in Marriage based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-07-30 00:00:00 Jeffrey Cheslic I highly recommend this book to college students, law students, attorneys, religious leaders, and policy makers - gay or straight - anyone who is searching for a better way to conceptualize family values in this country. The author provides an in-depth history of the LGBT rights movement juxtaposed against the rise of the Christian Right and delivers a very moving argument for why we should start to untangle sex-based relationships from the civil institution of marriage and move to a model based on dependency - the original purpose of marriage. In today's modern world, there are many different kinds of families - gay couples raising adopted children; single mothers living with their siblings; adult children helping their elderly parents; etc. etc. These families are built on dependency - each individual supports or depends on another and the government should intervene in a way that rewards such relationships, e.g. by providing health insurance and other benefits that are often provided only for spouses or unrelated domestic partners. This book is a fascinating read and would make an excellent addition to the collection of any scholar of history, politics, feminism, or religion.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-28 00:00:00 Patrick Day What an eye-opening book! It takes you through all of the history and cases that illustrate the problem with giving marriage "special rights." The author instead calls for a "valuing all families" approach that looks at the INTENT of laws to decide who should benefit from them. And I completely agree with the statement that just because you CAN marry doesn't mean you should HAVE to get married in order to have the same benefits as other people. And people should have the right to stay unmarried and "uncoupled" but still be able to choose who gets to visit them in a hospital, who gets to inherit their property, and who gets their benefits when they die. "Family" has only recently (since the 1950's) meant one married man and woman and their children. We used to be able to include parents, grandparents, and even close family friends who are not blood relations as our "family." And you shouldn't be stuck with your blood relations if you want nothing to do with them. The notion that the "nuclear" family is better than any kind of other family unit is a complete lie perpetuated by those who want to incite panic in the religious community. POVERTY is the cause of social ills, not unmarried parents.