Melanie Heath
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814737125
- eISBN:
- 9780814744901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814737125.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Marriage and the Family
This chapter focuses on the small number of marriage workshops directed both at poor single mothers in conjunction with receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) benefits and at the ...
More
This chapter focuses on the small number of marriage workshops directed both at poor single mothers in conjunction with receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) benefits and at the prison population. While marriage advocates seek to redraw a definitive boundary to compel marriage as a moral and social good, some are more willing to recognize the obstacles to marriage for low-income individuals and prioritize a number of relationship- and work-related services. To disseminate these services to a low-income population, the marriage initiative trains employees of the Department of Health, the Cooperative Extension Service at OSU, and Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) to conduct workshops and make referrals to their clients. In the first two years of the program, the Department of Health agreed to meet a quota of workshops offered by staff members trained in the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), with each conducting at least four workshops.Less
This chapter focuses on the small number of marriage workshops directed both at poor single mothers in conjunction with receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) benefits and at the prison population. While marriage advocates seek to redraw a definitive boundary to compel marriage as a moral and social good, some are more willing to recognize the obstacles to marriage for low-income individuals and prioritize a number of relationship- and work-related services. To disseminate these services to a low-income population, the marriage initiative trains employees of the Department of Health, the Cooperative Extension Service at OSU, and Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) to conduct workshops and make referrals to their clients. In the first two years of the program, the Department of Health agreed to meet a quota of workshops offered by staff members trained in the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), with each conducting at least four workshops.
Melanie Heath
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814737125
- eISBN:
- 9780814744901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814737125.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Marriage and the Family
This chapter examines the boundary work of marriage promotion workshops offered to the general population, which practices ideas concerning hierarchical gender relations. By teaching about the ...
More
This chapter examines the boundary work of marriage promotion workshops offered to the general population, which practices ideas concerning hierarchical gender relations. By teaching about the “opposite sexes,” these workshops organize knowledge that depends on homosexuality's omission and the prohibition of non-heterosexuals' desire. They teach principles about marriage that rely on common sense ideas of gender and heterosexuality—ideas that speak to a mythical gendered American family. Thus, these workshops focus on conservative gender norms in relation to what it means to be a husband or a wife. Referencing the ideal nuclear family, they spoke to a conceptualization of gender that fits the theoretical perspective of the sociologist Talcott Parsons on male and female “roles” and their divergent social functions—the male role being “instrumental” and the female “expressive.”Less
This chapter examines the boundary work of marriage promotion workshops offered to the general population, which practices ideas concerning hierarchical gender relations. By teaching about the “opposite sexes,” these workshops organize knowledge that depends on homosexuality's omission and the prohibition of non-heterosexuals' desire. They teach principles about marriage that rely on common sense ideas of gender and heterosexuality—ideas that speak to a mythical gendered American family. Thus, these workshops focus on conservative gender norms in relation to what it means to be a husband or a wife. Referencing the ideal nuclear family, they spoke to a conceptualization of gender that fits the theoretical perspective of the sociologist Talcott Parsons on male and female “roles” and their divergent social functions—the male role being “instrumental” and the female “expressive.”
Melanie Heath
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814737125
- eISBN:
- 9780814744901
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814737125.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Marriage and the Family
The meaning and significance of the institution of marriage has engendered angry and boisterous battles across the United States. While the efforts of lesbians and gay men to make marriage accessible ...
More
The meaning and significance of the institution of marriage has engendered angry and boisterous battles across the United States. While the efforts of lesbians and gay men to make marriage accessible to same-sex couples have seen increasing success, these initiatives have sparked a backlash as campaigns are waged to “protect” heterosexual marriage in America. Less in the public eye is government legislation that embraces the idea of marriage promotion as a necessary societal good. This book uncovers broad cultural anxieties that fuel on-the-ground practices to reinforce a boundary of heterosexual marriage, questioning why marriage has become an issue of pervasive national preoccupation and anxiety, and explores the impact of policies that seek to reinstitutionalize heterosexual marriage in American society. From marriage workshops for the general public to relationship classes for welfare recipients to marriage education in high school classrooms, the book documents in meticulous detail the inner workings of ideologies of gender and heterosexuality in the practice of marriage promotion to fortify a concept of “one marriage,” an Anglo-American ideal of Christian, heterosexual monogamy.Less
The meaning and significance of the institution of marriage has engendered angry and boisterous battles across the United States. While the efforts of lesbians and gay men to make marriage accessible to same-sex couples have seen increasing success, these initiatives have sparked a backlash as campaigns are waged to “protect” heterosexual marriage in America. Less in the public eye is government legislation that embraces the idea of marriage promotion as a necessary societal good. This book uncovers broad cultural anxieties that fuel on-the-ground practices to reinforce a boundary of heterosexual marriage, questioning why marriage has become an issue of pervasive national preoccupation and anxiety, and explores the impact of policies that seek to reinstitutionalize heterosexual marriage in American society. From marriage workshops for the general public to relationship classes for welfare recipients to marriage education in high school classrooms, the book documents in meticulous detail the inner workings of ideologies of gender and heterosexuality in the practice of marriage promotion to fortify a concept of “one marriage,” an Anglo-American ideal of Christian, heterosexual monogamy.
