Most Western women these days consider themselves to be sexually liberated, worldly and in charge of their own sexual destinies. When you willingly and openly choose to share your life, your self – and your body – with another person on a long-term basis, it is (and should be) a big deal. Somewhere in those…
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This was not the first time my father had expressed an opinion which had bothered me, but for some reason this particular incident has stayed in my mind over the last few months. I was watching the phenomenal 2011 film by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi titled A Separation, which follows the lives of two startlingly…
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Bush administration press secretary, Ari Fleischer has proposed that marriage inequality is the cause of a hell of a lot of single ladies’ poverty. In a conservative editorial published in the Wall Street Journal, Fleischer implored US President Barack Obama to focus economic policy around the breakdown of the traditional family. ‘Marriage inequality should be…
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Where shall I take you, I asked, when we are wed? ‘The sea,’ she answered. ‘Will you take me to the sea?’ Oh, I said grandly, oh I will pour out oceans for you. In fairy tales, as in real estate, it is all about location (repeat ad nauseam). Any change, any alteration, any turning…
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The interview had been taking its predicted turns. What were my strongest attributes? What did I think needed a bit more work? Where did I see myself professionally in five years? I gave all the expected answers: ‘I really want to learn and take this opportunity to grow within the company… I genuinely feel this…
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I love weddings. They’re big parties that are all about celebrating love, catching up with people you never see, and dancing to ’80s and ’90s pop while tipsy. They’re a public declaration of a new chapter in the couple’s life; of the two of them having figured out what they want to do with their…
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As Shakespeare once said: ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a Smith or a Jones or a Giandomenico by any other name would smell as sweet.’ Or something like that… * ‘If you’re gonna do it, pick something together that makes your new family more interesting – all the celebrities seem to be…
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In an unprecedented move, the new Pope Francis has stated that Catholics should show compassion toward their fellow man, even if that man is homosexual, divorced, or, even a woman. In an interview with an Italian Jesuit journal, La Civilta Cattolica, the Pope was asked how Catholics should behave towards those who are divorced or…
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This week, news came from the US of a bizarre product which has become available online. Entrepreneurial pregnant women have been selling their positive pregnancy tests to people online via the Craigslist website – on which you can find just about anything.* Even more interestingly, women have been posting ads wanting to buy tests with…
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It would be easy to assume that the bulk of prospective candidates put forward for romance at the Shanghai Marriage Market are men. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, by 2020, there will be 24 million more Chinese men between the ages of 20 and 44 than women. But in fact it is the…
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I checked Facebook last night to discover that five of my friends had shared the same link. Among my group of friends – mainly queers, feminists, and greenies – this often means something interesting is happening, particularly when the link relates to Things the Liberal Party Have Done That Are Stupid. The link was to…
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Gay marriage will be in the next printed edition of the Oxford English Dictionary as a secondary definition. It will read: ‘(in some jurisdictions) a union between partners of the same sex.’ The primary definition remains ‘the formal union of a man and a woman, typically as recognised by law, by which they become husband…
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Last week the world was shocked after a video of a young Yemeni girl made the rounds on the internet. In the clip, 11-year-old Nada Al-Ahdals tells of how she ran away from her family in order to escape a forced marriage. ‘What have the children done wrong?’ she asks, her dark brown eyes pleading…
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Queen Elizabeth has given her assent to a bill that will legalise same-sex marriage in Britain. The royal seal of approval is essentially a formality after the bill passed both houses of parliament on Tuesday to clear the way for the first same-sex marriages to begin in England and Wales in mid-2014. Before then, lawmakers…
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