Going to the chapel: Same sex marriage and competing narratives of intimate citizenship

Abstract

The public discourse about marriage oscillates between a story of the ideal and a story of the everyday. A range of symbolic references or myths are mobilised in media stories about marriage; this is particularly evident in the polarised debate around same-sex marriage. This article identifies and explores three of the myths that underlie the rhetoric in same-sex marriage stories: 1) the evolution/revolution myth; 2) the apocalypse myth and 3) the myth of the child. It also argues that the production of such stories has effects on the realm of ‘intimate citizenship’ (Plummer 1995) and that it is through this contested storytelling that new identities and their attendant rights become possible.

Keywords

• intimate citizenship
• identity
• narratives
• marriage
• storytelling