The Remote Island by Bryan Christian Today on Nerve's TV blog: Dance, Hipster, Dance! Plus: our latest NewsCrush — and why one army brat is breaking up with Army Wives.
DISPATCHES
posted 5/28/2004
The future of marriage is a contentious topic, even around the Nerve offices. Some of us are getting hitched before the year is out. Others are avoiding it like a family reunion. It's at once an incredibly personal matter and a major issue on the national stage. Is the institution obsolete? Should same-sex marriage be legal? Are children raised by single parents more likely to go postal? Is this generation waiting too long to get married? In search of insight, if not answers, we assembled an e-roundtable that included the resolutely single writer Jonathan Ames, comedy queen Margaret Cho, the conservative commentator Maggie Gallagher, a gay historian and the editor-in-chief of Maxim. — Tobin Levy
The participants: (For full biographies, click here).
Margaret Cho is an award-winning comedian, blogger, Off-Broadway performer and activist. You can visit her official website at www.margaretcho.com . She also has started her own website on marriage equality: www.loveisloveislove.com .
Jonathan Ames is an NPR contributor, Letterman regular and author of the books What is Not to Love?, My Less Than Secret Life and Wake Up, Sir! He is single. You can visit his website at www.jonathanames.com.
Susan Shapiro Barash is a professor of critical thinking and gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College. She is the author of A Passion for More: Wives Reveal the Affairs that Make or Break Their Marriages and Second Wives: The Pitfalls and Rewards of Marrying Widowers and Divorced Men. She has been happily married (the second time) for the past six years.
Darcy Cosper's first novel, Wedding
Season — about a young couple who is anti-marriage but has
to
attend seventeen weddings in six months — was published last March.
Keith Blanchard is the editor-in-chief of Maxim magazine. He is "very happily" married and has three young children.
Blaise K is a writer and graphic designer living in Brooklyn. Her website,
bazima.com, has been featured in The New York Press, The Times
and The Daily News.
Jim de Sève is a Brooklyn filmmaker. His documentary Tying the Knot makes the case for gay marriage.
Maggie Gallagher is president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and a co-author of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better off Financially.
Dr. Scott Haltzman is a psychiatrist experienced in the relationship patterns of husbands and wives.
Molly Jong-Fast is the twenty-five-year-old author of the novel Normal Girl. For the last year she has documented her wedding in a column for Modern Bride.
David Moats is the author of Civil Wars: Gay Marriage in America.
Ethan Watters is a writer living happily in San Francisco. He is the author of Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family and Commitment.
