Across society the social institution works its influence: it makes normative the marital basis for sexual relations and for generating the next generation.
This is a public relationship that arises from the two-sexed nature of humankind, the opposite-sexed nature of human procreation, and the both-sexed nature of human community. The human institution of marriage bonds them and holds them together as much as, if not more than, their private sexual commitment one to the other.
Weaken the meaning of the social institution and weaken its rationale; abandon its rationale and abandon the societal preference for marriage. That is how social institutions are destroyed -- or de-institutionalized.
Marriage is no exception to being vulnerable to de-institutionalization, despite its foundational importance to civilization. Yet, in light of this peril, marriage has remained a universal institution across the anthropological and historical record.
The SSM idea, not so much.
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