What Is A "Normal" Married Couple In America?

        In today's society, we like to believe that anyone can love who they want regardless of class, gender, or race. Although that may be the case in some situations, in most, society has a huge impact on how marriages are built. These three major factors are what usually influence a person on who they want to marry and have kids with. Going into social class, according to the text book, when interviewing working class women, "Lillian Rubin (1976) found that wives thought a good husband was one who held a steady job, did not drink too much, and was not violent". My family and I can relate to this because one of the biggest things my mother always nags to my dad about is that he has to always be working hard. Anytime my dad has a couple of days off, he is immediately called lazy.
         Moving on to gender, there are many types of marriages like polygyny (where a man marries more than one wife) and monogamy (where a man has one wife). According to the website sociologyguide.com, monogamy is "the most common and acceptable form of marriage". This is fairly obvious looking around society. For example, in my neighborhood where I grew up all my life it wasn't until recently that a gay couple moved in. Although no one in the neighborhood was negative towards the couple, it certainly became the talk of those around us.
         One of the factors that in my opinion is way more accepted than it is was many years ago is couples of different race. This is without a doubt a fact rather than an opinion now a days with research done. According to an article on the website nydailynews.com, "8.4 percent of all current U.S. marriages are interracial, up from 3.2 percent in 1980". Being that the percentage went up by more than double within around 30 years, it is safe to say that this percentage is going to only increase as it because more and more common throughout the U.S. Other than my cousin's, one of my aunts is part of an interracial couple that is fairly uncommon. She is Mexican (from my side) while my uncle is from Morocco.                                                                          In conclusion, I believe that as time progresses, class, gender, and race will become less important factors when it comes to marriage. I would not be surprised if any of my siblings or cousins ignore these factors when they get married.

http://www.sociologyguide.com/marriage-family-kinship/Types-of-marriages.php

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/interracial-marriages-u-s-hit-all-time-high-4-8-million-article-1.1023643