We could see that our mothers blackmailed us with self-sacrifice, even if we did not know whether or not they might have been great opera stars or to… - Germaine Greer

another characteristic I found of love in healthy people is that they
have made no really sharp differentiation between the roles and
personalities of the two sexes. That is, they did not assume that the
female was passive and the male active,whether in sex or love or anything else. These people were so certain
of their maleness or femaleness they did not mind taking on some
of the aspects of the opposite sex role. It was especially noteworthy
that they could be both passive and active lovers…an instance of
the way in which common dichotomies are so often resolved in selfactualization,
appearing to be valid dichotomies only because people
are not healthy enough.

The wedding is the chief ceremony of the middle-class mythology, and it functions as the official entrée of the spouses to their middle-class status. This is the real meaning of saving up to get married. The young couple struggles to set up an image of comfortable life which they will be forced to live up to in the years that follow.

Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.