Saturday, September 06, 2008

Regular expressions of marriage

marriage?
marriage?,
originally uploaded by Rootytootoot.
Opponents of gay marriage favor the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, forming the basis of a traditional family. Using the language of regular expressions, we can formalize the allowed configurations of families under different assumptions.

Let us represent a family grouping by a character string including various numbers of children, men, and women in that order (alphabetical).


Extended monogamy
^(child)*(man(man|woman)?|woman(woman)?)$

Traditional monogamy
^(child)*(man(woman)?|woman)$

Childfree
^(man(man|woman)?|woman(woman)?)$

Polygyny
^(child)*(man(woman)*)$

Polyandry
^(child)*((man)*woman)$

Polygamy
^(child)*((man)+(woman)*|(man)*(woman)+)$

Anti-spinster
^(child)*(man(woman)?)$

Anti-bachelor
^(child)*((man)?woman)$

Nuclear family
^(man|woman|(child)*manwoman)$


I wrote a little Ruby program to test a number of configurations against these regular expressions to give you an idea of what is allowed and what is not under those models.
Family groupingAllowed?
Anti-spinster (hetero, no single women, single fathers okay)
mantrue
womanfalse
manwomantrue
manmanfalse
womanwomanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childmantrue
childwomanfalse
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomanfalse
childchildmanmanfalse
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childfalse
Childfree (extended monogamy without children)
mantrue
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmantrue
womanwomantrue
manmanwomanfalse
childmanfalse
childwomanfalse
childmanwomanfalse
childwomanwomanfalse
childchildmanmanfalse
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childfalse
Open family (any configuration allowed)
mantrue
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmantrue
womanwomantrue
manmanwomantrue
childmantrue
childwomantrue
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomantrue
childchildmanmantrue
childmanmanmantrue
manmanwomantrue
childtrue
Nuclear family (hetero, no single parents)
mantrue
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmanfalse
womanwomanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childmanfalse
childwomanfalse
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomanfalse
childchildmanmanfalse
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childfalse
Anti-bachelor (hetero, no single men, single mothers okay)
manfalse
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmanfalse
womanwomanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childmanfalse
childwomantrue
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomanfalse
childchildmanmanfalse
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childfalse
Polygyny (1 man + n women)
mantrue
womanfalse
manwomantrue
manmanfalse
womanwomanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childmantrue
childwomanfalse
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomanfalse
childchildmanmanfalse
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childfalse
Traditional monogamy (1+1 of opposite sexes, single parents okay)
mantrue
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmanfalse
womanwomanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childmantrue
childwomantrue
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomanfalse
childchildmanmanfalse
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childfalse
Polyandry (n men + 1 woman)
manfalse
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmanfalse
womanwomanfalse
manmanwomantrue
childmanfalse
childwomantrue
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomanfalse
childchildmanmanfalse
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomantrue
childfalse
Extended monogamy (1+1 of either sex, single parents okay)
mantrue
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmantrue
womanwomantrue
manmanwomanfalse
childmantrue
childwomantrue
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomantrue
childchildmanmantrue
childmanmanmanfalse
manmanwomanfalse
childfalse
Polygamy (n men + n women)
mantrue
womantrue
manwomantrue
manmantrue
womanwomantrue
manmanwomantrue
childmantrue
childwomantrue
childmanwomantrue
childwomanwomantrue
childchildmanmantrue
childmanmanmantrue
manmanwomantrue
childfalse


A few minutes' inspection of the results reveals how the regular expression in this model encodes the assumptions as to who is allowed to mate and who is allowed to raise children in a powerful and concise manner. Specifically, each of the regexs is short enough to fit on the front of a T-shirt, with room to spare, so that no geekish onlooker would need to wonder what your family philosophy consisted of.

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