“Honey, I’m home!” says the modern-day women to her stay at home husband. Imagine a household where the mother can stay at home with her child and be a homemaker and the father work every day. To many people, this may seem normal, maybe even typical.
Now, I would like for you to imagine a household where the father stays at home and the mother leaves every day to go to work. This is oftentimes less typical and involves negative or stereotypical thoughts or comments from society.
Unless a man is single, he is almost always expected to be the one providing for and taking care of his family. On the contrary, women, whether single or married, who take on traditional masculine roles are often praised. This has led to a gender revolution that is one sided.
Is marriage something that will improve the lifestyles of men? This question is frequently asked by many people in today’s society, but the answer is not so easy to come by. According to Maggie Gallagher, a journalist from The City Journal, marriage is something that is potentially very healthy for men. Although, some men tend to disagree with this statement, there are many supporting factors that can prove this.
What is marriage? “Marriage is an institution that encourages men to settle down by engendering a responsibility ethic, by fostering monogamy, and by connecting them to a partner with a stake in their personal well-being and their professional success” (Wilcox 199).
In traditional times, a man would choose a bride, start a family, and fictionally live happily ever after. But sadly, in today’s society marriage sometimes has the tendency to have a negative connotation. Men have the idea that marriage is made to tie them down or restrict them from doing things that they would not normally do alone.
They have the idea that once married, the woman is the individual who is making all the important decisions in the relationship and the man is solely there to provide the finances. Although, in some cases this may be true, it is not often found to be correct at all.
Many researchers and journalists have studied the statistics and facts surrounding this idea and have found that there are many different factors that go into the deep, physiological findings of why marriage is healthy for men.
The most noted idea of why marriage is healthy for men is intimacy. Sex is something that both men and women physically desire. Almost 1/4 of single guys and 30% of single women lead sexless lives (Gallagher).
In contrast, married people found sex to be most satisfying what it is enjoyed between husband and wife, where there is no guilt of wrongdoings due to religious beliefs. Sex is often found to add a healthy release in life.
It is found to help relieve stress and emotions that are often held inside and can lead to many transgressions like, rape, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment. Although sex is something that is not commonly noted as being important to a marriage, many researchers have found that it truly is. Also, marriage increases sexual fidelity.
Single men are 4 times more likely to cheat than married men. Single men have no formal/legal ties in a relationship, so they feel that they have no responsibility to commit to one person. In addition to sex, married men frequently manage their finances better than single men.
That idea is supported by the fact that the married man has more responsibility than the single man. The man who is married has the weight of his family on his shoulders, therefore failure and unemployment are usually not an option; the single man encourages living by trials and tribulations.
Some believe that single men live better lives. Although this idea is often stated that there are many facts or statistics to back that theory up. It is more often than not a statement that is frequently made buy here said.
Take a short story by a man named Hryhor Nestor. Nestor is 115-year-old man who lives in the western part of Ukraine and has spent his entire life as a single man. He attributes his advanced age to healthy living and the fact that he never married.
Mr. Nestor believes that personal freedom played a major role in his longevity. Although there are many studies that contradict what Nestor believes, there are more factors that can and should be taken into consideration.
“Professor Bella DePalo further complicates the issue by suggesting the possibility of a stigma theory, wondering whether the fact that married and single people are differently valued in society may partially explain differences in health, longevity, and marital status” (Coleman).
It can still be believed that single men live better lives, but the previous evidence would contradict that idea. Ironically, the world’s oldest people both led single lives, but Coleman cannot definitively say that it was solely attributed to remaining single.
He simply concludes that the determining factors are not always clear and “the relationship between marriage and longevity is more complex than had been generally believed” (Coleman).
Although Nestor and Bertrand’s lives are evidence, single individuals live longer lives, they are wrong because health statistics prove otherwise. Longevity does not matter if there is not health to back up the quality of life.
There are many facts stating how marriage increases and adds value to men’s lives. While we can agree that marriage allows men to live better lives, majority of our articles focus on the traditional marriage.
Gender role advancements have changed the dynamic of modern-day marriage, but more importantly, they are preventing marriages from forming altogether.
Gender role advancements among women, particularly, and the setbacks faced by men along with the stereotypes they face, are preventing men from marrying and allowing more women to remain single. There are less marriages because of this gender revolution.
Although the gender revolution can be appreciated, the redefinition of the roles is very biased. There needs to be equal advancement among men, as well as women, so we can work towards increasing the overall rate of marriage. All people, regardless of gender, deserve to be happy and live longer lives; this can be achieved through marriage.
True redefinition of gender roles should include advancements for everyone and should not hinder marriage formation. When two people form a union, it should not matter who takes on what roles, the sharing of responsibilities should alleviate difficulties that are common when single.
