X marrying Y <> Y marrying X?

[Baker, John]

        The point is, if it's mutual, you don't have to tell who is the
marrier and who is the marriee.  I suppose that the Commonwealth of
Virginia would have contrasted their statute to a hypothetical statute
that imposed penalties upon a black person who entered into marriage
with a white person, but not upon the white spouse.

        I am reminded of Dunsany's story, "Jorkens' Revenge," in which
the eponymous hero won a bet that the distance from Westminster Bridge
to Blackfriars Bridge is greater than the distance from Blackfriars
Bridge to Westminster Bridge.  The other characters somehow expected
that the two distances would be the same.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Barrett
Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 11:22 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: X marrying Y <> Y marrying X?

How do you tell the marrier from the marriee? BB

Baker, John wrote:
> The mutual aspect actually was quite important in Loving v. Virginia,
> = the 1967 case referred to.  Virginia contended that, because its =
> miscegenation statutes punished equally both the white and the Negro =

> participants in an interracial marriage, these statutes, despite their

> = reliance on racial classifications, did not constitute an invidious
> = discrimination based upon race.  The court didn't buy it.
> =20
> =20
> John Baker
> =20
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Benjamin Barrett
> Sent: Sun 9/9/2007 4:42 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: X marrying Y <> Y marrying X?
>
>
>
>  From http://bbsnews.net/article.php?story=3D20060824223757467
>
> A 1967 Supreme Court case that struck down a Virginia law that
> prevented white folks from marrying black folks and vice versa.
>
> BB
>
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org