The End(s) of marriage: Feminists, antifeminists, and Indian law

Feminist anthropology sought to transform the sex-gender systems that enabled marriage. This essay considers the complications of that promise in the context of my recent research with antifeminist marriage resisters called Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOWs). Despite a history of marriage resistance in the Indian women's movement, contemporary women's organizations rely on civil and criminal law relating to marriage to secure resources for their clients and thus cannot afford to transform its heteronormative patriarchal logic. MGTOWs challenge gender roles and paid labor within marriage and seek alternatives to conjugality, but do so on terms that highlight their pain and disavow their privileges.