How is it that heterosexuals have made such a terrible failure of marriage as an institution?

What went wrong?How is it that heterosexuals have made such a terrible failure of marriage as an institution?
As it turns out, infatuation and sexual chemistry alone aren't a reliably sufficient basis for a stable, lifelong relationship.





Most people take a few years to learn this, and many people marry young. Ergo: many disastrous marriages.How is it that heterosexuals have made such a terrible failure of marriage as an institution?
What?





This is the most loaded question I have ever heard.





First, is it my imagination or are heterosexuals the ONLY people that have marriage as an institution? Like, by law? I am not against legalizing marriages for same-sex couples, but they are not legal today.





That having been said, the divorce rate is WAY down from its high thirty years ago - when changes in the role of women and both sexes' expectations of marriage left people in the awkward position of having married under one set of rules and getting divorced when another set became accepted.





Divorce rates for couples with children are even lower.





I'm not sure what constitutes a ';terrible failure,'; but married people live longer, report being happier, are more economically stable and far less likely to experience legal problems or other socially stigmatized events.





If anything, its NOT getting married is a terrible failure as an institution - especially for single women that have children.





No one is saying that marriage is perfect (or that ';hetersexual marriage,'; albeait a redundancy, is perfect) but I find it difficult to characterize it as a failure. And the underlying premise that homosexuals could some how be better at it is, well, a little ridiculous.
If someone made that statement aimed at homosexuals you would no doubt be up in arms railing against the alleged discrimination inherent in the statement.








The fact is that heterosexuals aren't any worse at picking marriage partners than anyone else....they simply make up much larger numbers than any other group.





Heterosexuals are human with all the failings of humans, therefore they make mistakes and that includes marriages that sometimes don't work.





Nobody gets married with the intention of divorcing, that's just a plain stupid thing to suggest...people get married because they think it's the right thing to do at the time and then later things change in some way or the other and it's no longer the right thing.





That can happen to anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation.





To suggest that homosexuals aren't affected by relationship breakups is flawed.





Homosexuals have been breaking off relationships with each other for years, just the same.....they just haven't been any marriages and therefore divorces because until recently they haven't been able to marry....it's as simple as that.





Now they can in many places and you are already starting to see divorces....so that demonstrates that people are just people and they same things happen to them all.





And I always thought that was the whole point of not discriminating....something you've just blatantly done with your question.
When marriage is set up like an exclusive club, the only people who can make it a success or failure are the members themselves. Loaded and biased question. I am certainly not a homophobe by any means, but if I were to ask a question that began ';How is it that homosexuals have made such a terrible failure of......?'; You would jump all over my sh*t for being a gay basher. I like you Trevor, I love it when you post clear, well thought out questions and your insightful and witty answers, but you seem to have missed the boat on this one
Yes, and homosexuals all have perfectly harmonious, utopian relationships.


Which you know is BS.


Living near the famous Castro District In San Francisco for many years, I can truley say that gay male relationships had just as many, if not more break ups, it's just not that talked about...nobody really has the stats, since these breakups arent recorded through divorce proceedings.


But then, you already knew this, you just wanted to create a frenzy of pissed off heterosexual people.


*yawn*


I'm off to answer an important question.
Because heterosexuals have been the only people able to marry. Therefore they are the only people who could make a failure of it.





Polygamous and homosexual relationship disputes go through the Family Court here, they are just not technically marriage.
That's kind of like saying---how in the world did teenagers make such a failure out of public school????!!!!





Just because a few, a lot, or even MOST drop out of school; doesn't make public school a failure.
Since they legalised gay marriage in teh UK a high amount of them end in divorce so you can ask yourself the same thing.
Yes, well homosexual relationships don't exactly have a high sucess rate themselves.
In Canada gays and lesbians have been getting married AND divorced for a number of years now.
This is one of those ';when did you stop beating your wife'; type of questions.
the confused culture and values are the roots to this problem.