And while most of these children were had in heterosexual
relationships or marriages prior to "coming out:" a significant number of
gay and lesbian couples are having children through adoption, cooperative
parenting arrangements, and artificial insemination. Within the next two
decades, gays and lesbians will not only win the right to marry but will,
like newly arrived immigrants, be some of the strongest proponents of
traditional family values.
The Rise of Fictive Kinships
Multiadult households, typically consisting of unrelated singles,
have been increasing in number for some years and are expected to
continue to do so in coming years. For many, "roommates" are increasingly
permanent fixtures in daily life.
In fact housemates are becoming what some sociologist and
psychologists call "fictive kin." Whole "fictive families" are being
generated in many of these situations, with some housemates even
assigning roles ("brother," "sister," "cousin", " aunt," "mom," "dad,"
and so on) to one another. Fictive families are springing up among young
people, old people, disabled people, homeless people, and may well define
one of the ultimate evolutions of the family concept, maximizing, as they
do, the opportunities for fulfillment of specific social and economic
needs outside the constraints of biological relatedness.
THE BREAKUP OF THE NUCLEAR FAMILY
It's hard to tell how many times we've heard even well-informed
health professionals blithely opine that "the breakup of the family is at
the root of most of our problems." The facts disagree with this
conclusion. Most of the social problems attributed to the dissolution of
the "traditional" family (which, in reality, is not so traditional) are
the product of other forces. Indeed, as we have seen, the nuclear family
has itself created a number of economic, social, and psychological
problems. To try to perpetuate a manifestly transient social institution
beyond its usefulness is folly.
What can we do to save the nuclear family? Very little.
What should we do? Very little. Our concern should not be the
maintenance of the nuclear family as a moral unit (which seems to be one
of the priorities of the more ardent conservative "family values"
forces), encompassing the special interests and values of a minority,
but, rather, the strengthening of those social contracts that ensure the
health, well-being, and freedom of individuals.
PHOTO: Woman
PHOTO: Refrigerator with built-in television
PHOTO: Dice
PHOTO: Bag of computer chips
PHOTO: Knife and toast with multi-colored butter
Excerpted from Psychotrends: What Kind of People Are We Becoming?
(Simon & Schuster) by Shervert H. Frazier, M.D. Copyright 1994 by
Shervert H. Frazier, M.D.
Tags:
AIDS,
coming millenium,
drastic changes,
economic factors,
family marriage,
gender,
interesting times,
marriage divorce,
person household,
population pressures,
psychiatry department,
relationship,
sex,
sex out of wedlock,
sexual equality,
sexual excesses,
sexual images,
sexual revolution,
traditional family values,
traditional values,
wedlock births,
women in the workplace
