The 'Morning Edition' series 'The Summer of Love' begins with a look at marriage

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: What do NPR listeners think about marriage?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AT LAST")

ETTA JAMES: (Singing) At last, my love has come along.

JENNIFER KOCA: I'm Jennifer Koca. I'm 37 in Richmond, Va. I definitely dreamt about getting married a lot when I was a kid. But as I got older, I realized marriage is basically just a piece of paper.

DOYLE TATE: I'm Doyle Tate. I am 31 in Jacksonville, Fla., and I would love to be married one day. I decided that I wasn't going to wait for a man who may never come. So I started the process of surrogacy when I was around 30. Aphrodite Rose is now 4 1/2 months, so it's been wonderful.

ARAVIND BODDUPALLI: My name is Aravind Boddupalli. I'm 28 years old, and I live in Baltimore, Md. And my love life with my partner, Mae, looks like a true partnership. We're an interracial marriage. But I don't think it's ever posed an issue for us in our respective communities.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AT LAST")

JAMES: (Singing) Oh, yeah, yeah, at last.

MARTIN: Today, MORNING EDITION is beginning a series we call The Summer Of Love. And to start, we're looking at the institution of marriage. Jake Dunagan studies governance at the Institute For The Future - that's a think tank committed to research and education - and as part of that work, he thinks about topics like the future of marriage.

JAKE DUNAGAN: It has been a norm in human society in a diverse way. We've invented and reinvented marriage. We ask marriage to do a lot in our society from sexual reproduction to romantic love, to personal fulfillment, political alliances. Do we want to keep those bundled in marriage or do we want to split those up? You know, do we want, you know, a function for socially sanctioned, romantic love? Do we want something about economic mobility and robustness? Do we want something about parenting and bringing up children together? So if you think about the futures of marriage, you know, do we have those official formal sanctions and ceremonies for each one of those, maybe or maybe not, but we have things that might stretch the meaning of what marriage is.

MARTIN: We are hearing, though, more in the media about polyamorous relationships. That's not necessarily polygamy. And often, we're hearing from women who are interested in these kinds of relationships. There is no society currently in which polygamy is recognized where women have equal social standing. So is there a form of this that could take place in which women might be the initiators of these kinds of relationships in which they would have equal social and legal standing?

DUNAGAN: Polygamy has basically been a patriarchal institution. Younger generations are definitely more diverse. They're more tolerant of sort of gender continuum, you know, ideologically, value based, they're more open to that. Marriage asks a lot of us. It asks us to be monogamous for a long time, it asks us to be good roommates and good partners, it asks us to be good co-parents together. Then I think certainly given some of the indicators, younger generations may be more open to exploration of what that institution looks and feels like.

MARTIN: What do you think are the commonalities of what people are looking for in marriage that will endure into the future?

DUNAGAN: I mean, I think romantic love. We want to feel connected to someone, feeling a sense of belonging and togetherness. And I think whether we idealize romantic love or sexual attraction, I mean, those are core parts of marriage. We will, in some sense, always have that. There's a sense that I'm a better person or I'm a more complete person with someone else or maybe more than one if we want to go that direction. But that sense of fulfillment is very strong and so marriage has offered a pathway for that. I think that will continue. You know, do we need to do reproduction through the institution of marriage? I'm less inclined to say that has to be there. But I think the sense of being connected to someone for a long time, finding someone or something that really makes you feel better about yourself and more whole, I think there's something there that we all want and that will endure, and I think marriage can be a part of that story.

MARTIN: That's Jake Dunagan. He is with the Institute For The Future. It's a think tank that focuses on research and education about the future. Jake Dunagan, thanks so much for talking with us.

DUNAGAN: Thanks, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.