Thank you for your response.

> It's an inhuman relation created out of the idea that women are property.

That is a very general statement to make. What particular societies would be compliant to your claim? There are some that would have this view and there are others that most certainly do not. These latter consider women to be worthy of high praise and protection from all who would come to destroy them or take them captive.

> The only purposes it serves is the domination of women.'

I have to ask: are you married? Especially when you say:

> It's designed to limit women to one man, to ensure the husband's lineage.

Marriage (at least under a Judeo-Christian worldview) also restricts men in identical fashion - limiting a man to one women for life (you know this [until death do us part] bit).

I find it strange that you do not consider marriage as a partnership. This is what I was shown and have lived over my lifetime. I understand that people do not take it seriously and are jolly well selfish in their mindsets.

> Even in modern times it simply has no place. It is only limiting, never liberating. Marriage allows one partner to dictate to the other that they're not allowed to love anyone else. It's pure tyranny.

Since I have seen some men do this and I have seen some women do this, why do you think that all men and women do this? In recent times, I have been interested in how younger people (both men and women) see marriage and what I find interesting is that it is the women who seem to be the ones demanding exclusiveness from the men without applying that to themselves.

Now consider that it is women who carry to term the children, how does the protection of mothers and their children arise if men are free to do as they please? Which is essentially what you are asking for. If you take your proposal to the logical conclusion then men actually get the better end of the stick - no responsibilities and all the women they can manage to accumulate. There is no upside for women. Or for that matter, there is no upside for the integrity and maintenance of society.

> It allows one partner to steal from the other. Not only are married people considered to be joint owners of each other's property, but when divorce near-inevitably comes, it allows one to legally take the other's property.

In a partnership, there is joint control. Marriage is essentially supposed to be a partnership. Sure, you do get:

> It's not at all uncommon to hear stories of "my wife/husband took everything and now I'm homeless and starving", usually from men, because society sees married women as "dependent" on their husbands.

This is a problem because as a society, marriage is considered to be a non-permanent entity. People don't see a need to take it seriously and permanently. Yes there are situations where a breaking of it is needed. But the reality is that marriage is a choice to maintain not a fairy tale and it will require resilience and effort on the two people involved. Challenges always arise and difficulties and trials and tribulations.But one of the oft stated points made to me when I was a young man from couples who had been married for 40, 50 or 60 years is that despite all the troubles and difficulties, marriage was worth every second they had together and the only things they would have changed was themselves and not their spouse.

You say:

> Personally I cant' comprehend loving someone and then going "we should file legal paperwork about this to make it arbitrarily difficult to get away from if one of us needs to get away. Why literally bind yourself to another person?

The answer to your question is that you choose this. The woman I am married to has many faults and foibles, but she is the best of all women on this planet. None surpass her and I couldn't see myself with any other. She is my match, my companion, my delight, she challenges me to be a better man in every way. She is talented in ways I am not. Much as I love my sisters, my daughters, my granddaughters, my women friends, there is only one who I find the best of all and she is my wife. She has stuck with me through thick and thin, through the good times and the bad times, in sickness and in health and I would go through it all with her again.

I find your view so sad. But then again, I find that there are many who are like you and cannot see the great things that come out of marriage when a man and a woman commit themselves to a permanent exclusive bond.