'Marriage fundamentalism, like structural racism, is a key structuring element of White heteropatriarchal supremacy,' professor says
NPR podcast guest claims 'thinness' a byproduct of White Supremacy
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"Marriage fundamentalism" promotes the ideas of "White supremacy," according to a White George Mason University professor.
Professor Bethany Letiecq wrote in the Journal of Marriage and Family about her theory "that marriage fundamentalism, like structural racism, is a key structuring element of White heteropatriarchal supremacy."
"Marriage fundamentalism can be understood as an ideological and cultural phenomenon, where adherents espouse the superiority of the two-parent married family," she wrote. "But it is also a hidden or unacknowledged structural mechanism of White heteropatriarchal family supremacy that is essential to the reproduction and maintenance of family inequality in the United States."
Letiecq is an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University, "specializing in the utilization of community-based participatory action research approaches, anti-racist research methods."
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A close up shot of a bride and groom exchanging vows. (iStock)
The professor explained in the article that she is "a White, cisgender woman … currently living with my partner and co-raising our children in a committed heterosexual union outside the institution of marriage."
In the article, Letiecq said she drew upon "critical feminist and intersectional frameworks to delineate an overarching orientation to structural oppression and unequal power relations that advantages White heteropatriarchal nuclear families (WHNFs) and marginalizes others as a function of family structure and relationship status."
She argued that, "since colonization," "marriage fundamentalism has been instantiated through laws, policies, and practices to unduly advantage WHNFs while simultaneously marginalizing Black, Indigenous, immigrant, mother-headed, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) families, among others."
Letiecq concluded by calling for family scientists to "further interrogate how marriage fundamentalism reproduces family inequality in American family life and to work toward its dismantling."
Letters from the bride and groom and their accompanying wedding bands. (iStock)
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"A deeper understanding of how these complex and often covert mechanisms of structural oppression operate in family life is needed to disrupt these mechanisms and advance family equality and justice," the abstract concludes.
Marriage scholar Brad Wilcox told the College Fix that he disagrees with Letiecq, explaining marriage as an institution that has advanced the common good in civilizations across the globe.
"Marriage benefits children of all racial and ethnic backgrounds," the University of Virginia sociologist and director of the National Marriage Project said.
American Principles Project leader, Terry Schilling, told the outlet that the article "suggests far-left academics are ramping up their attacks on the family, the most important institution in society."
Many marriage experts argue marriage is the backbone of a thriving society. (iStock)
"Although the social science on the immense benefits of strong, intact families is unimpeachable, this author simply waves them away," Schilling said. "She ignores the extreme harm that has come to minority Americans as a result of family breakdown in their communities."
"We need to be doing what we can right now to shore up the family, not tear it down," he added. "Otherwise, our society won’t be ‘reproducing’ much of anything in the very near future."
Fox News Digital reached out to Letiecq for comment.
Kendall Tietz is a Production Assistant with Fox News Digital.
