Marriage system is a control mechanism of human sexual activity with a long history. The control mechanism of sex generally includes three aspects: one is to allow, encourage or force people to develop intimate sexual relations in some habitual relationships, such as marriage proposal, concubinage and marriage. Secondly, sexual relations are discouraged in all other situations, such as people who are not suitable for marriage, or people who have established intimate relationships with others. Three, it is strictly prohibited to have sex in violation of regulations, such as incest taboo. (K. Davis, 1937) Many cultures have similar regulations, stipulating that marital sex is the only legal export of human sexuality, which makes marriage the most important system to regulate human sexual activities.
Marital status plays an important role in various social factors affecting sexual activities. It not only affects the frequency of sexual activity, but also affects the type and quantity of sexual release channels, so it has always been the focus of sexology research. Sexual relationship in marriage is the most important of all sexual relationships. Sexual relationship is also an important part of marriage relationship. The relationship between sex and marriage is first of all the harmony between husband and wife in body and mind. Therefore, not only the relationship between husband and wife is crucial to the maintenance of marriage, but also the degree of sexual harmony between husband and wife is crucial to the happiness of marriage.
Until modern times, monogamy or monogamous marriage has been the only way of marriage recognized by some civilizations, especially western civilization. But in other civilizations, the legitimacy of monogamy is not self-evident. For example, Islamic civilization allows polygamy; China traditional society also allows concubines. In the same culture and society, the marriage system is constantly changing. For example, strict monogamy has been practiced in China since 1950s.
In traditional society, marriage is regarded as a sacred union in religious or secular sense, which must be maintained for life and cannot be divorced. Divorce is rare in China's marriage tradition. Some Christian countries (such as Ireland) did not allow freedom of divorce until recent years. In addition, the less neutral factors in marriage, the better. Marriage is regarded as a sacred obligation, or an obligation that must be fulfilled in life, rather than a combination of love and sex between men and women. Changes in modern society and culture have greatly changed people's views on marriage. Marriage is a relationship that needs to be constantly created in the eyes of modern people, and the role of sex cannot be ignored.
For most people, marriage provides the basic conditions for sexual activity. In some social codes of conduct, marriage is the only legal sexual channel, and all extramarital sex is rejected or condemned. A typical example is China from 1950s to 1970s. During these 30 years, extramarital sex almost completely disappeared, and marital status was regarded as the only legal form of sexual catharsis. Of course, although adultery and prostitution have been severely cracked down and suppressed by various administrative means, they have fallen to the lowest level that human beings can imagine, but they have not completely disappeared. The administrative punishment for the so-called style problem that happens from time to time is the evidence that this kind of behavior still exists.
Apart from this exception, in most societies and times, sexual intercourse is the main export of married people, but it is not the only export.
Since the quality of sexual life has such an important influence on marriage, people naturally think that marriage must be frequent and happy, but the results of sexology survey are different. The frequency of young couples having sex is about three times a week, which decreases with the increase of age, which leads to many people's dissatisfaction with the sexual relationship between husband and wife. Although marital sexual relations are legal, there are still problems of negotiation. The success of negotiations between the two sides will often affect the quality and frequency of sexual life. The existence of children will also limit the intimate relationship between husband and wife. In addition, the happiness of sexual life and marriage do not seem to be completely synchronized, and the happiness of sexual life alone cannot guarantee the happiness of marriage.