Speak now or forever hold your peace! Australian feminist writer, broadcaster and public speaker Clementine Ford is making the case against marriage – and it’s a good one.
Speaking on The Weekend Briefing, Clementine suggested that marriage simply isn’t in women’s best interests.
“I think that the system of marriage has always been oppressive to Women. It’s never had our interests in mind for most of history. And certainly the last thousand years of, you know, Western Judeo-Christian history. Women had no legal rights. Identities were considered to be under the banner of our fathers and then transferred to our husbands. Coverture is only really ended formally in the last hundred or so years and still, we have legacies of it today with women feeling like they need to give their children the father’s name.”
She explained that she’s not against married people and isn’t suggesting women should get divorced.
“I will say that when I talk about marriage, it’s actually mostly about the institution of marriage. I’m not saying to anyone that they can’t fall in love I’m, you know, I write in the book that I’m a deeply Romantic person. I’ve been in love many times before I hope to be in love again because I think that love is an integral experience of humanity.”
She did say however, if you are in a relationship that isn’t serving you, it might be worth considering your perspective on marriage.
“If you’re staying married, you’re worried about what it looks like to be unmarried. Or you are worried about what it means to quote-unquote break up a family…because you’ve absorbed these ideas that have been thrust onto Women, which is that we have to sacrifice our own happiness and our own safety to make sure that the family stays together.”
Clementine Ford‘s I Don’t: The Case Against Marriage is available now.
In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Clementine breaks down the patriarchal structures of marriage in Western society and how it never favoured women.