Is the Government in the Business of Marriage?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

In the UK, single earner households are weighted against in our tax system. You end up paying more tax if you have a traditional nuclear model than if you have two parents earning. And so I think given that the government does have to make choices on things like tax regimes,I think that those choices should be in favor of marriage rather than against it.

Ditching the stuffy hang-ups and benighted sexual traditionalism of the past is an unambiguously positive thing. The sexual revolution has liberated us to enjoy a heady mixture of erotic freedom and personal autonomy. Right? Wrong, argues Louise Perry in her provocative new book.

Shermer and Perry discuss: What was the sexual revolution? • feminism: first wave, second wave, third wave, and beyond • the evolutionary psychology of sex differences • experiencing self vs. remembered self • individual freedom vs. societal good • monogamy vs. polygamy • marriage vs. domestic partnerships • Why is the government in the marriage business? • BDSM and sexual violence • autogynephilia • trans matters • abortion matters.

Louise Perry is a writer, New Statesman columnist, and campaigner against male sexual violence. Her new book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, has sparked an international conversation about sex in the 21st century.