Marriage Is ?

First of all what are you looking for? The legal defamation, the realistic defamation or what the defamation should be?

The legal and realistic defamations are virtually identical.

The legal union (contract) of a man and woman as husband and wife, and in some jurisdictions, between two persons of the same sex, usually entailing legal obligations of each person to the other.

Married on the other hand is defined as
Emotionally joined or bounded.
Different meanings entirely.

The marriage contract has changed over the years. Originally, it was a verbal decluration but now requires legal documents to be acknowledged by others. In both cases, a decluration of marriage allowed a man to have exclusive possession of a woman, her property and her offspring. It also obligated the woman to bare children, keep house, cook for him and do what ever he demanded of her. Simply it was legal slavery. The women had no more rights than the livestock. A man would have been in more jeopardy for beating his horse than beating his wife. He could even demand she “pleasure” his friends with out criticism from anyone. She had absolutely no rights and accepted the entire matter as her purpose in life. Did you notice there was no mention of love in the matter of marriage? Unfortunately many people still think the same way.
The modern day marriage contracts allow equal rights to the man and the woman.
The main rights afforded both are an expectation of fidelity (no other sex partners), joint and equal property and financial rights, no physical or mental abuse and countless other rights associated with marriage.
The reality is most marriages today are also for reasons other than love. The reasons very from I want social status, I want financial status, I want to feel wanted, and I want a sex partner that will not cause criticism. There are numerous other nauseating reasons which none of communicate or bear a resemblance to love. What is nauseating is that all these reasons are all acceptable in today’s society.
Let me lead up to my next statement by saying “I neither condemn nor condone same sex marriages because they do not effect my life in any way.” Therefore, after stating that, I would like to know in a society that accepts all the non-love reasons for marriage as proper, how do they have the gall to say same sex marriage takes away from the sanctity and intent of marriage? Get real the true sanctity and intent of marriage, “To Love, Honor and Cherish”, has been tainted from the beginning !!!
I know ! You want to know what happened to “Love, Honor and Obey”. Well the truth is both phrases are man made, nether is in the Bible. If you still prefer the wife’s vows to contain OBEY, then you are of the old school and barbaric belief of enslaving women. To which I say, “May shame and disgrace follow you through eternity !!

Now what should the defamation of marriage be? That has a very simple answer.
When two people truly LOVE, not lust after, each other and agree to dedicate their life to each other, they are married ! The wedding ceremony is only to celebrate their decision with others, not a mandatory thing. Unfortunately, a marriage license is necessary in order to get society to recognize the marriage and your rights as a couple. Once again a wedding ceremony a not a mandatory thing. All that is required is you apply for a marriage license, get someone with the proper authority to verify you are doing this of your own free will, sign the marriage license and then they submit the marriage license to the appropriate authority for filing. Simple right? All except for that bothersome word DEDICATE. This means every morning when you wake and every night before falling asleep for the rest of your life you must choose to be with this one person, protect them, care for their needs and respect them no matter what ! No matter what? You know what that means, sickness and health, rich or poor, happy or sad, no matter what ! Not hard at all, if you truly love them.

Just one old man’s thoughts on the matter.