MARITAL UNION WITHIN THE IDEOLOGY OF CAPITALIST COMMODIFICATION AND CONSUMERISM

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of marital union as an economic and market-regulated entity, a product of the advanced processes of contemporary capitalist commodification. Familiar notions such as the institution of family, the myth of eternal love, soulmates, and the idea of engagement are understood as contextually tied to consumerist ideology, society and culture. The main argument is that economic value became integral to the internal structure and organization of marital union throughout its history, and that this has been especially evident over the last century of increased dynamics of capitalist development.