In 1969, two “conventional” married couples met, swapped partners, and lived in a group marriage, hoping to pioneer an alternative to divorce. It didn’t work. “Quadrangle” was directed by Amy Grappell.
After a decade of marriage, if things go well, you don’t need any more proof. What you have instead — and what I would argue is the most deeply romantic thing of all — is this palpable, reassuring sense that it’s okay to be a human being.
Despite the increasing number of dating apps, matchmakers, and love advice designed to facilitate romantic connections, many women are opting out of relationships. They are declaring to be happily unmarried and proudly find solace in living solo.
First Princess Latifa tried to flee by boat and almost made it to India—before being sent back. Then Princess Haya, Sheikh Mohammed’s “public wife,” refused to return from England. Now the sheikh is battling her in court over their children.
Some Mauritanian communities believe that the fatter girls look the wealthier and more attractive they appear to men. Sahar Zand meets the families force feeding their young girls a 9,000 calorie-a-day diet during a brutal “feeding season” in Mauritania.
When Seretse Khama, an African prince, and Ruth Williams, a white middle-class clerk from Lloyd’s underwriters, got married in 1948, it provoked shock in Britain and Africa. Khama was exiled from Great Britain and later became the first president of Botswana when it became an independent country.
Marriage is practiced in every society yet is in steep decline globally. Is marriage collapsing because empowered women have less need for pair-bonds? Many writers trace the decline of marriage to the growing ease of single parenthood.