There are many issues that surround how individuals select a life partner. Some of these are social norms and some of them are built into our legal system. Same sex marriage is something that has been in the forefront for several years, but is a relatively new occurrence in the US legal system having only been ruled legal by the Supreme Court in 2015. Many of the same arguments made about the legalization of inter-racial marriages also pertain to same sex marriages. Loving v. Virginia (which is highlighted in the first video) was the Supreme Court case that challenged the the law prohibiting interracial marriages at the time. On June 12, 1967. the Supreme Court ruled that the laws forbidding inter-racial marriages were unconstitutional. This wasn’t that long ago. Depending on your age perhaps you, your parents, your grandparent may been alive when these laws preventing interracial couples marrying were active.
Mirroring the law, the way in which the mass media shows relationships has also changed dramatically over the years and the videos below are just a few examples of the types of shows that focus on different types of relationships. After watching these videos, for your discussion think about how has the issue of marriage/cohabitation changed in the past 50 years? How has dating changed over the years?