'Marriage, in what is evidently its most popular version, is now on the one hand an intimate "relationship" involving (ideally) two successful careerists in the same bed, and on the other hand a sort of private political system in which rights and interests must be constantly asserted and defended. Marriage, in other words, has now taken the form of divorce: a prolonged and impassioned negotiation as to how things should be divided. During their understandably temporary association, the "married" couple will typically consume a large quantity of merchandise and a large portion of each other.'
Wendell Berry, 'Feminism, the Body, and the Machine' in What Are People For?, p.180.