Highlights
- The story of the death of marriage, told in popular and elite venues, has been greatly exaggerated. Post This
- While movies like “Marriage Story” do their part to perpetuate the cultural myths of widespread divorce, the reality is that there is good news to report about the state of the American family. Post This
If your only sense of the state of our unions is drawn from the pop culture and the prestige press, you probably think marriage in America is on the ropes. The critically-acclaimed new movie, “Marriage Story,” described by its costar Adam Driver as a “love story about divorce,” provides viewers with an intimate and often raw glimpse into the demise of a marriage in New York City and Hollywood. The bestselling new novel from Taffy Brodesser-Akner, “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” tells a similarly bleak marriage story about another bitter divorce unfolding in New York City between a doctor and a talent agent.
Pop cultural offerings like these give the impression that many marriages are messy and miserable, and the descent into divorce is rampant nowadays.
Or take the messages about marriage we get from the media. The New York Times recently ran an op-ed, “Beyond Marriage,” from an eminent family scholar suggesting that marriage is “disappearing.” Elsewhere, Brookings Institution fellow Isabel Sawhill warns, “marriage is in trouble and, however desirable, will be difficult to restore.”
But the story of the death of marriage, told in popular and elite venues, has been greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase Mark Twain. While movies like “Marriage Story” and op-eds do their part to perpetuate the cultural myths of widespread divorce and the collapse of the institution of marriage, the reality is that there is good news to report about the state of our unions and state of the American family. If we look at three key trends over the last decade in the United States, there are bright spots on the family horizon.
Continue reading at USA Today . . . .
