From an historic basis — even as late as the 19th Century and the first half or so of the 20th — there are very few of them today. Women can marry without permission of their fathers. Divorce is available for grounds other than adultery. Married women can own property, refuse their husband's sexual advances, work outside the home without permission of husbands, and even keep their own names.
Granted, there are far too many people who think that each and every one of those things is wrong and sinful and not ought to be allowed (or, in the case of marital rape, simply do not exist by definition).
While opponents of same-sex marriage try to distill "traditional marriage" down to "one-man-one-woman," go back a century or two, or five, or ten, or thirty, and simply following that "tradition" without a lot of other "traditions" would land you in jail … or worse.
So perhaps what we need is for "traditional marriage" folks to actually define what they mean by "traditional marriage," and why those particular traditions should be given more weight than other traditions that have been around for just as long but which are today unpalatable for the majority (including, ahem, some who are very prominent in the "traditional marriage" camp, particularly in the "divorce" category).
Embedded Link
Victory Through Lexicography?
Critics of same-sex marriage often argue that its defenders are guilty of seeking to “redefine” marriage. It is true that the term “marriage” has traditionally been applied, for the most part, to hete…
Google+: View post on Google+
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet about what was “traditional” for wives & women: http://www.historyofwomen.org/timeline.html
I was aghast at some of it. Some of the aghast I already knew.
This is a well-written argument you’ve linked to.
Neither this one, nor the one I submitted, mention at all the (defunct) husband’s right to incarcerate his wife as a lunatic if she questions his authority, disregards it, or merely displeases him. I think this was still possible in the 1960s in the US.
@Marina – It would not at all surprise me, sadly. And it would not surprise me if there were folks out there who thought that still is quite appropriate, if not God-mandated.