And the percentage has already dropped 5% in one year. So that means that there were 56% of Americans married last year that were living together. The median age for women marrying is now 27 and the median age for men is now 29. Since I grew up in the 1950s when things started to change towards now, I would say the single reason things got here now is the Birth Control Pill that became legal in 1960. This is the single factor that changed everything. Although Roe Versus Wade which made abortions legal in the U.S. for the first time ever also added to this, it was minor to women able to buy birth control pills. And this ability of CHOOSING when or even if they ever got pregnant in their lives began the change to now. Is this a good thing? It is if you value freedoms and rights for women so they aren't just slaves to men forever. However, some people have a different point of view. Has it helped children. I would say "No" because it has only made divorce or not getting married at all more feasible. So, for children less people marrying likely makes their lives worse. However, I think both women and men after they are adults and aren't tortured growing up through all this then have a much freer life to choose and to do what they wish as long as they are psychologically fit at that point to enjoy their freedoms. So, is this good or bad in the end when you consider everyone? I think in the end when you bring the needs of everyone into it it is neutral. But that is just my point of view after seeing what it did through the last 63 years of my life. Would I like to go back to the way it was? No. Before the birth control pill women were like confused birthing slaves to men. I think at least for the men and the women this is better. I don't know what to do about what it does to kids, however.
This is my own experience during the 1970s. (In 1970 I was 22 years of age). Some people look at me and say something like, "But you lived through the Golden Age of the Sexual Revolution!" However, I have a different point of view, Imagine that things had been one way for 1000s of years. And then something came and changed all that. Wouldn't you think it would create a lot of confusion? For example, let me replace the word "Ice Cream" for sex and show you what I mean.
Here is the parable. Before birth control "Ice Cream" was forbidden outside of marriage. So, anyone who ate "Ice Cream" was forced to get married because of the kids that resulted from it. There were many shotgun weddings. But then there was the "Birth Control" pill and anyone could eat all the ice cream that they and anybody else wanted to eat. As long as they could afford the ice cream (one way or another) everyone had enough ice cream. But the problem was that all these young people never had ice cream before. And as they ate and ate and ate the ice cream they started to get sick in their bodies and minds because of all the ice cream that they ate with everyone and each other. So, they started to get really confused but some of them said, "OH. Let's do Flower Power and make signs that said, "Make Love Not War" and then many soldiers came home from Viet Nam and either put on long haired wigs or if they were discharged from the military grew long hair and mustaches and beards too. And they all ate and ate and ate this ice cream until they all got sick in their minds and bodies and said things like, "I have had enough ice cream and eating ice cream with all these different people. I don't care that there is birth control pills I only want to eat ice cream with one person whether I'm married to them or not. So, some of these people being faithful to each other had children and some got married and some did not. And this has all continued to the present day. But, so many people got sick in their minds and hearts and bodies from all the ice cream that they ate with all the different people that many got sick either physically or mentally and many died. (This was the 1960s and most of the 1970s). But then, some new things started to get added to this in the late 1970s. There was STDs and Aids that started to spread and first a whole lot of Gay people died in San Francisco and then it spread to all the Gay places in the U.S. and around the world. and then people realized it wasn't just a gay disease and regular people started to get it and die like flies all over the world I found out at Wikipedia that 25 million people have died from AIDS all over the world since about 1980 and 2 million now die from it worldwide mostly in third world countries where people are too poor to afford the AIDS Medicines. Also, in Africa there are now 14 million orphans from AIDS that killed one or both of their parents so they are alone often without anyone to care for them at all.
So, during the 1980s and 1990s and throughout the 2000s until now most people reduced the number of "ice cream" partners down to below about 5 or 10 per lifetime and used protection sometimes called condoms to prevent them or their partners getting AIDS. However, even now remember that 2 million people a year die of AIDS right now on Earth. To put this into perspective we lost only 35,000 people in traffic accidents last year in the U.S.
So, more and more starting in the 1980s people wanted to only be with one faithful person and so they "Only" physically ate ice cream with one person sometimes for the rest of their lives. Because they didn't want to die of AIDS. So, the people living together now and the 51% married now are all a part of those who stay faithful and eat ice cream only with their one partner because they want to stay alive and healthy and have only healthy children.
note: The beginning paragraph facts were from NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on TV and then later on in my blog I researched facts through Wikipedia under the Heading, "AIDS" and most of the other facts were just off the top of my head from living through the whole thing reading newspapers, time magazines, and watching NBC News and CNN News on TV for almost 60 years now since my Dad bought our first TV in 1954 when I was 6 years old.
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