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Saturday, December 28, 2002
"THE MAIN THING that makes 'new families' different from 'old families' is the rate at which they change": a moving, painfully honest essay in the London Observer on family fragmentation and Christmas dinner. Britain's Equal Opportunities Commission recently interviewed 60 fathers and "their partners" and conducted three focus groups, leading to a report called Dads on Dads. "MARRIAGE LICENCES ARE OUT and paternity letters are in" for New York actresses, says the New York Post gossip page (scroll down). Just a silly item in a tabloid, or a small sign of a larger shift toward individually negotiated "close relationship" contracts instead of marriage? Thursday, December 26, 2002
A link-rich website explores issues regarding the Muslim community, including interesting sections on "Family & Community" and "Gender Relations." They also have a good sense of humor. Constance Hilliard, who teaches history at the University of North Texas, has an essay in USA Today on the "complex, controversial, and painful" issue of marriage in Black America. She's an interesting voice. Here's another of her essays on family issues. And another. Here's her home page. "SANTA CLAUSE EFFECT": Teens are most likely to have sexual intercourse for the first time in the months of June and ... you guess it. (About 46 percent of high schools students in 2001 reported having had sexual intercourse.) Update: Here's an article from Pediatrics on this topic, stressing the role of adult supervision. Tuesday, December 24, 2002
"FAMILY VALUES" (CONT.): My thesis is that the term "family values" is used almost exclusively today as a term of ridicule and accusation. For today's example (requires registration), check out Robert Scheer in the Los Angeles Times. Monday, December 23, 2002
In The Altantic online, an interview with Barbara Dafoe Whitehead about her new book, Why There Are No Good Men Left. I've never liked or trusted the debate about who has it worse, boys or girls (PDF file). But it does seem clear that, at least with respect to academic achievement, girls now consistently outperform boys. The social consequences of this trend, combined with the trend of greater opportunities for women, are likely to be enormous. For example, the ratio of men per 100 women on U.S. college campuses has now dropped to about 79, with enormous consequences for dating, mating, and marriage. Sunday, December 22, 2002
USING MARRIAGE WORDS FOR NON-MARRIAGE (CONT.): A story in the Toronto Globe and Mail -- in which relationship experts advise umarried cohabiting couples to negotiate and sign private contracts so as to avoid problems later on in the case of a breakup -- profiles an umarried man and "the woman he calls his wife." |
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