Ended up staying together... That does not mean that they made the marriage work. They just didn't get a divorce.

I don't think that this is a good thing. What is the point in celebrating a marriage that has lasted fifty years when they pretty much stopped interacting 25 years before?

there are going to be instnces of both the marriage working and/or crumbling...That is not the point...

The point is that a ceremony (and later a state contract) that used to be revered, honored, and worked on should not have it destroyed in such an easy manner...That makes the bar for the destruction lowered, which is what was done both from a legal and a cultural standpoint...

Let's just take this phrase...Two women talking...

"Divorce him...He doesn't make that much money and with your looks, you can always get another guy."...

In 1960, saying that would be downright blasphemous in society and whoever said it was considered shallow and lacking couth...

But in 2007, that sounds like your regular nighttime programming...

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oh, I have

but, then, I watch a lot of Turner Classic Movies and it sounds ALOT like the lines from many 1930's films.

It's so silly for people to think that golddigging and/or divorcing is some kind of late 20th century phenomenon

No...but the manner in which it can be accomplished has been streamlined...making it a more palatable thought...

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I'd be OK with that, so long as such education is even-handed and honest, which, I think, is what you are advocating here.

If the educators or the material is biased, or exaggerates the pros of one system while exaggerating the cons of another, presumably to serve an agenda, I would not be in favor of that.

I'm all for teaching children about reality, and letting them make up their own minds as they mature about what is right for them. This is the position I am taking with my parenting.

Let me clarify my intent Jaaaman, I'm not attempting to poke holes in any definition, I'm merely inquiring as to what the definition really is and why we limit to one factor. I provided my understanding of traditional marriage as an example of what it could mean and how current factors in society much more threatening than the assumptive dangers of ssm. I don't have anything against traditional marriage, I just don't see it as a realistically successful function in todays society when we factor in the issues I've presented.

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No it goes something like this:
1960- He beat me and broke littele Jimmey's arm
Well you know he does make good money, what wud u do -where wud u go ?

2007-Oh, girl, his ass is so in jail!

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Including spousal abuse during a conversation on traditional families?...

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It happens. That's what happens when you start working with "individuals" though. We all know that since most mammals have children via the male and female gender, "Traditional Marriage" as a concept is based on that fact. And the "Traditional Family" is the result of the "Traditional Marriage". Mom, dad, and kids.
Now when mom dies from breast cancer, dad becomes a crack head, and the daughter gets pregnant and brings her baby home, that's something else. But then you are dealing with individual circumstances. In those circumstances, any arrangement is just a trying to correct something going wrong.