Week Twelve

Original:
The idea practice of monogamy has been widely accepted for much of history. Religious figures have always praised it, and cursed those that reject it. Politically, fathers would marry off their daughters for an increase in social status or power. To get the most value out of their daughters, they would ensure that they were still virgins when married, and it was understood that they would only marry once. In fact, the idea of love didn't become widespread until the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. That is less than 200 years ago that people actually started to marry for reasons other than money and status. At the time, this was a huge deal for the fathers, who didn't want their daughters to marry some poor farm boy, but rather someone with money to make them richer. But as with all major shifts in thinking, people come to accept the change over time, and now we have certain days set aside in the year to spend with the poor farm boy your dad told you now to hang around.


Revised:

The practice of monogamy has been widely accepted for much of history. Religious figures have always praised it, and cursed those that reject it (patriarchywebsite.com). Historically, daughters were viewed as a valuable business commodity. Seeing as how daughters were less useful as physical laborers than sons were, and couldn’t carry on the family name, fathers would marry off their daughters for an increase in social status or power. To get the highest value from their daughters, they would ensure that they were still virgins when married, and they would only marry once. In fact, the idea of love didn’t become widespread until the Industrial Revolution. Less than 200 years ago that people actually started to marry for reasons other than money and status (hirr.hartsem.edu). At the time, this of the upmost importance for fathers, who didn’t want their daughters to marry some poor farm boy, but rather someone with money to make them richer. But as with all major shifts in thinking, people came to accept the change over time, and now we have certain days set aside in the year to spend with your significant other.

            Speaking of Valentine’s Day, you might be surprised as to how unromantic the roots of this holiday truly are. From as early as 600 BC, Romans practiced a festival in which men drew the names of teenage girls from a box. Whoevers name they drew would be their sexual partner for the following year, until the next festival (wilstar.com). All that has changed is now instead of pulling a name out of a box, we buy a card and some flowers, or go out to a nice dinner before enjoying copious amounts of sex.