“Open marriage destroyed Ashton and Demi’s relationship!” cried one tabloid. “Did Ashton and Demi have an OPEN MARRIAGE?” spat another. When Hollywood couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore split last month amid rumours of having an alternative union, the press had a field day. The astonishment and bewilderment over a couple engaging in such a lifestyle was screamed from the front pages.
We live in a society that is more sexually liberated than ever before, yet open relationships ”“ a relationship in which both partners are allowed to have sex with other people ”“ still have the propensity to shock. It is one of the last remaining taboos.
Kutcher and Moore are not the only high-profile couple to allegedly reject monogamy.
Love and sex are never without strings. The proponents of this sort of degeneracy will glibly explain away and ignore the human wreckage left behind.
Are we sure that their “open marriage” was was led to their separation? Are there no other plausible explanations, say, their Hollywood egos, career envy, their age difference, etc.?
If people want to be “open” in the first place, what is their rationale for legally and/or spiritually committing to one person in marriage anyway? Why even get married? Joint tax returns? Legitimate children? The home would certainly be questionably “stable”–Mom, Dad and daughter playing Scrabble and having Chinese food on Saturday night, but Mom is leaving after dinner to go spend the night with “Jemma”–how “normal” is that for the daughter?!!
People who do this want the benefits of being married without really being married. It’s not a marriage, it’s dinner with side-dishes.
And I am beyond tired of this; people learn the correct debunking of it in Soc 101–do journalists forget everything they learn in basic Sociology, despite the fact they consider themselves “cultural commentators”?
“In the US we have a 50 per cent failure rate for marriage”.
That crummy statistic is calculated by roughly noting the number of marriages each year vs. the number of divorces each year. It negates successful, committed, long-term marriages including those till death, and also cannot outline or consider the amount of time people are married before they get divorced–thus, e.g., extenuating circumstances are not included–say if a couple was married successfully for 25 years before one of them has a mid-life fling and cheats, with the marriage unable to weather that breach of trust. Said couple was still married for the 25 years without divorce.
I also think using divorce statistics as justification for “open marriage” is misdirected cultural commentary that frankly, stinks. “My marriage will succeed if I have someone on the side”–come on. In my small view that opens up several other cans of worms that marriages certainly don’t need–especially issues of trust, jealousy, and explaining this sort of insanity to children.