Type of paperAssignment SubjectSociology Number of pages1 Format of citationOther Number of cited resources0 Type of serviceWriting Discuss the idea of family from a functionalist, conflict and symbol

Running head: MARRIAGE/FAMILY 0

Marriage/Family

Name

Institution

Marriage/Family

Sociologists have carried out a lot of research on families on both the micro and macro level to determine how marriages operate. In doing so, they have come up with various views that describe events occurring outside and within the families. Also, the emergence of gay as an issue affecting society has drawn the attention of scholars on what it means when government laws interfere with same sex marriage (Harris, 2003). This discussion will look at these aspects in detail.

Functionalism

The functionalist perspective on family believes that the role of families in society is to stabilize society. For that reason, the members making up a family have different status roles within the family or marriage (Harris, 2003). This implies members of the family perform specific duties to promote the development and propensity of society.

The conflict theory

This conflict perspective is another position sociologists put forth to describe families or marriage. Based on this theory, families are often places where power struggle exist. The struggle of power involves the performance of the status roles of families (Harris, 2003). Proponents of this theory usually consider both simple matters, such as how children obey their parents to complex ones like sexual assaults or incest.

Symbolic Interactionism

Proponents of the interactionist perspective look at the world in terms of symbols. For instance, a parent is viewed as an emotional and biological link to a child. However, the rise of cases of adoption has changed the meaning of the mother or father (Harris, 2003).

Pros and Cons of the legality of gay marriage

The intervention of the state to legalize gay marriage has both advantages and disadvantages. First, the legalization of same-sex marriage poses a significant challenge to conventional families or straight marriages (Harris, 2003). Secondly, same-sex marriage brings a lot of complications when it comes to having children as the only way is through adoption (Harris, 2003). However, concerning the pros, and since some government allows same-sex marriage, couples will qualify for government benefits given to married people.

Gay marriage and sociological perspectives of family

To start with, the theory of functionalism, this perspective appears not to be conflicted with same-sex marriage since both couples can play a part in the development of society. In relation to the conflict perspective, same-sex marriage seem to present a unique case since the power struggle for people with same-sex will vary a lot from people with different sexes (Demo, & Allen, 1996). Lastly, same-sex marriage has changed the meaning of symbols, as presented by the interactionist view. For instance, parents are viewed as a biological connection to children. For adopted children among gays, the biological relationship does not exist, which makes some of the proponents of interactionist argument to oppose gay marriage (Demo, & Allen, 1996).

References

Demo, D. H., & Allen, K. R. (1996). Diversity within lesbian and gay families: Challenges and implications for family theory and research. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 13(3), 415-434.

Harris, S. R. (2003). Critiquing and expanding the sociology of inequality: Comparing functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives. Quarterly Journal of Ideology, 25, 1-21.