All Strings Attached Podcast

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Monogamy Needs No Cure

Mar 16, 2023 | Life and Culture

In recent years, ethical non-monogamy has increasingly been promoted by organizations and institutions as a legitimate alternative to monogamy. Despite the United States’ long-standing legacy of monogamy and the limited influence of individuals engaging in behaviors most would have categorized as promiscuity or infidelity, today’s proponents of ENM claim that romantic, sexual, or intimate relationships with multiple people can not only be normal, but ethical. Contrary to the foundational Judeo-Christian understanding of monogamy as natural and religiously ordained – as well as the understanding that human beings are creatures with souls, free will, and the capacity to make moral choices – the sole ethical foundation of ENM is consent. Through the lens of consent, sexual morality is reduced to a single calculation in a contractual exchange – my “enthusiastic yes” for the satisfaction of your desire, regardless of its objective moral dimension.

Phubbing: A World of Distraction

Mar 9, 2023 | Friendship

In the 21st century, there are few technologies that match the smartphone. With the world at our fingertips, it seems that there are few limits on what we can learn and achieve – the sheer amount of knowledge, communication, and entertainment available online is staggering. However, as many of us have experienced, the downside of this great tool is distraction and information overload, particularly from the parts of our lives which depend upon our dedicated attention – our family and friends.There is only so much our brains can handle at once, and yet the goal of social media is our unceasing attention and engagement. Powerful algorithms curate content which makes us feel as though our desires are uncannily met, if not influenced without our prior knowledge or consent. Setting aside the powerful rewards systems vying for our attention, smartphones also absorb our time because of the digital alternatives they offer to analog utilities, such as real life books and notebooks, music libraries, calendars, and maps. Though the smartphone lightens our practical load in many ways, it increases social dysfunction in real life.

What Is Sex Realism?

Mar 2, 2023 | Femininity

A new publication called Fairer Disputations, part of the Wollstonecraft Project initiative of the Abigail Adams Institute, has as its goal the articulation of a new form of feminism “grounded in the basic premise that sex is real.” Gathering a group of scholars and writers who abide by the 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft’s “understanding of rights grounded in responsibilities,” the project seeks to facilitate the study of issues affecting women’s dignity and rights in the contemporary world. Today, there are countless instances where popular feminism has adopted a corporate, overly politicized framework which fails to address the real life-concerns of women – and alienated those who do not share the belief that gender is a choice.

Dating Doesn’t Stop Once You’re Married

Feb 23, 2023 | Life and Culture, Love and Romance

Dating doesn’t stop once you’re married. In fact, according to figures from a new report by UVA’s National Marriage Project, dating well grows even more crucial as you navigate life’s mountains and valleys together. Of the 2,000 U.S. couples surveyed about their dating frequency, 52% reported “never or rarely going out on dates.” while 48% reported regular dates “at least once or twice a month.” As Alysse ElHage at the Institute for Family Studies explains, those couples who made time for regular date nights were “14 to 15 percentage points more likely to report being ‘very happy’ in their marriages compared to those who reported less regular date nights.” Far from simply taking a “night out away from the kids,” regular dating in marriage would seem to indicate greater intentionality and thus stability in the marriage itself.

Marriage Is a Crash Course in How to Love

Feb 16, 2023 | Life and Culture

In the New York Times, on February 9, 2023, journalist Michal Liebowitz draws a fascinating parallel between the mutual identification of twins and that of spouses. After briefly recollecting her youthful impatience for adult couples who used the royal “we” – we liked that show; we love that restaurant – Liebowitz explains how her husband’s relationship with his twin brother taught her to accept a certain level of boundary porosity in her marriage. Contrasting the idea of the “pure relationship” with a “past vision of romance,” Liebowitz concludes that “surrendering one’s ‘I’ for the sake of the ‘we'” is the best antidote to the sickness of modern individualism.

Communicate Love, Not Therapy-Speak

Feb 2, 2023 | Love and Romance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that 21.6% of adults received mental health treatment in 2021, up from 19.2% in 2019 – young adults between the ages of 18 and 44, particularly women, were more likely to have received treatment. Back in 2018, NBC News reported results from a survey by the Hopelab Foundation and Well Being Trust which found that “90% of teens and young adults with symptoms of depression said they had gone online for information about mental health issues, compared with 48% of those without any symptoms.” Big Tech and social media are knowingly responsible, as Brad Wilcox observed in the Institute for Family Studies blog, for the rise in young adult anxiety, depression, and suicide, “among other pathologies.”