The term “marriage strike” has gained some currency in recent years. Any good strike needs a specific set of demands. After some consideration I’ve come up with the below list of demands. I’d appreciate any suggestions for improvements. I know some points could be a little more specific, like #7. Maybe this can serve as a basis for an actual marriage strike movement. Although naturally every jurisdiction and individual will have their differences, I’ve tried to make this fairly inclusive while not drifting too much into other men’s rights issues that aren’t directly related to marriage.

  1. Abolition of common law marriage or any other quasi-marriage arrangements which are entered into automatically or involuntarily.
  2. Equal access to marriage for all regardless of sex or gender.
  3. Retention or instatement of adultery as a ground for divorce.
  4. Abolition of all laws, regulations, and policies relating to abuse which discriminate on the basis of gender or sex.
  5. Felony charges for demonstrably false accusations of abuse.
  6. Organizations which openly espouse or advocate gender- or sex-biased views or policies barred from government funding.
  7. Remove incentives for judges and attorneys to draw out divorce proceedings.
  8. Auditing of judges for gender- or sex-based discrimination in rulings with consequences up to disbarment.
  9. Abolition of the “duress” exemption for prenuptial agreements.
  10. Abolition of alimony (maintenance).
  11. Presumed 50/50 custody unless one divorcing partner can be verified as abusive or incompetent.
  12. Property gained by divorcing partners prior to marriage, or its equivalent, devolves to original owner. Presumed 50/50 split of property gained after marriage.
  13. Right to abortion on demand up to the 20th week of pregnancy.
  14. Right to relinquish all parental rights and responsibilities up to the signing of birth certificate.
  15. Right to a paternity test on demand at any point prior to the signing of birth certificate.
  16. Prohibition of adding a parent’s name to a birth certificate without informed consent, except in cases of mental incompetence.
  17. Right to be informed of the birth of biological children.
  18. Felony charges for paternity fraud.
  19. Recognition of parental alienation as a form of child abuse.
  • rikersbeard@kbin.socialOP
    2·
    1 year ago

    That’s a lot of labels. I won’t really get into them specifically because they’re all “kind of yes, kind of no”.

    You raise a good point about how successful this movement could be. To be honest I’m using it more as a thought experiment to come up with all of the policy changes that would be needed for men to be on an even playing field with women in family law. In an ideal world we wouldn’t need the state to intervene in people’s personal relationships, but that world is far off. A set of specific reforms is more achievable in the short term.

    Regarding supply and demand: altho there are a lot of naïve men out there that still believe in the Disney happily ever after, a lot of younger guys are being quickly disillusioned given the state of dating these days. If the old stereotype holds true, it’s mainly women who push for marriage. So here’s the main point on which a marriage strike would fail or succeed: we would have to get those top ~10% of desirable men to get on board. They are the only ones that really have the leverage. As the bottom ~90% of men are invisible to most women, their opting out marriage will largely go unnoticed.

    In the end, we won’t know if it works unless we try it.