Why Same Sex Marriage Should Not Be Legalized

Introduction

The social issue that is of concern to me is same-sex marriage. This why same sex marriage should not be legalized essay seeks to present what is same-sex marriage, my attitude towards the issue of same-sex marriage, the case study of one advertisement and the strategies used for persuasion.

Brief Description and Feelings about same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage happens where two persons of the same gender decide to have a civil marriage. While it was an unusual phenomenon in the past, today there are as many as 24 countries that legalised same-sex marriage. Some of these countries include Australia, Brazil, United States of America, France, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands and most recently in Asia -- Taiwan. On the other hand, there are some nations that do not even permit their citizens to openly express that they are homosexuals. This is especially true in the Asian countries, some parts of Africa and some eastern European countries such as Russia. However, In the name of fighting for rights, I fear that it is a matter of time that many more nations will start legalising same-sex marriage.

I personally do not support same-sex relationship and marriage. The reason for that is due to my Christian belief. The bible teaches that God instituted marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Therefore, same-sex marriage would be a deviation from what God has instituted and is therefore wrong.

Implicit and Explicit Attitudes

Attitudes are what one thinks or feel about an issue or object, which then lead him to respond in what he deems to be right (Micah, 2019). There are two different types of attitudes, namely implicit and explicit attitudes. Implicit Attitudes are something that we cannot help but thought of in our minds. We could also unconsciously have certain thoughts in our minds. These attitudes are tended not to be expressed outwardly as we can be contradicting ourselves, or we could leave a bad impression of ourselves. Explicit Attitudes, on the other hand, would be actions we display out with ease and openly to the public as these actions will not impact how others think of us.

Implicit and Explicit Attitudes on same-sex marriage

Upon deeper reflection on the chosen social concern, I came to realize that my general disposition toward it is a sense of discomfort and awkwardness. On one occasion when I witnessed a homosexual couple behaving intimately, I was appalled and walked away from the situation immediately. Despite displaying such attitudes, given a chance, I would explain to the couple that although I do not support their relationship. I would still accept them as who they are. This is especially true if they are people whom I know.

Moreover, implicit attitudes that I felt was similar to my explicit attitudes, with more uncomfortableness. I would put myself into their shoes and try to think of what triggers a homosexual person to have feelings for someone of the same gender and the reason behind it. Despite having a negative view on this, I am unconsciously reminded by the Bible to accept who they are and continue to treat them with respect and love.

Implicit Bias

Implicit Bias which also known as unconscious bias happens when our implicit and explicit attitudes disagree with each other. A bias is formed when we favor something better than others, or when we are against something among others.

Implicit Bias toward same-sex marriage (Part II)

As of now, I believe I may have no implicit bias as implicitly and explicitly, I would still feel uncomfortable and still sensing that something is wrong. As stated previously, I would still treat homosexuals equally with respect and love, without having to desolate my belief.

Affective, Behavioural & Cognitively-Based Attitudes (Part III)

Affective-Based Attitudes are in the form of mood and emotions. Therefore, when we react towards an attitude object emotionally, it would be classified under affective-based attitudes. One example is, James is very fearful of sharks. Behavioral-Based Attitudes are actions or observations that influence how someone acts or behaves towards the attitude object. Building on the previous example, whenever James is near the ocean, he would become very frightened, starts experiencing flashbacks and shakes uncontrollably. Cognitively-Based Attitudes are thoughts, knowledge or beliefs about the attitude object. Again building on the prior example, James had had a scary encounter of almost getting eaten by a shark, so he knows that sharks are very dangerous.

We can experience all three components mentioned for a situation, and may experience one of them much stronger than the rest. This is due to attitude strength. Stronger attitudes would come into our thoughts faster and more consistently compared to other attitudes as they are more important as they are more useful to us which can make an impact on our daily lives.

Affective, Behavioural & Cognitively-Based Attitudes on same-sex marriage

With the three components in mind, I discovered that while my attitudes toward same-sex marriage consist of all three components, they lean more towards affective-based and cognitive-based attitudes. First, I am a person is rather reactive. I would tend to react emotionally to a given situation. Affectively, towards same-sex marriage, I feel shocked, confused and awkward. Secondly, I would start to have cognitive-based attitudes as I start to think about what is right and wrong, basing it on my knowledge of the bible. Lastly, for behavioural-based attitude, it would depend on the situation, as I would have to keep certain thoughts and actions to myself (Implicit attitudes). For instance, I am in the public, I would keep a low profile and would not make a huge fuss out of the situation. I would be more outspoken if I personally know the person.

Central and Peripheral routes to persuasion

Attitudes can be changed over time through experience, reflection or persuasions as they are not permanent. There are two different types of persuasion used in advertisements and they are Central route to persuasion and Peripheral route to persuasion.

Central route to persuasion uses factual or statistical information. Through listening or reading, the audience can think about what was being shared to better understand how he would benefit from it. It is most effective when the person has the time, energy and motivation to pay attention to the information given. An example would be that John is interested in getting an insurance plan and there was an insurance booth at the MRT station. However, because of the fact that he is tired and he has to rush home to complete a report which is due by the next morning. Hence, he rejected the promoter approaching him.

Peripheral route to persuasion is where superficial information is given. It relies heavily on emotional reactions and does not have a clear and direct message. The audience would decide to agree with the message based on other peripheral cues than the strength of the message's content. For instance, Colgate uses handsome actors and actresses, or a specialist with a nice smile to advertise its toothpaste. The audience may be attracted to the guy in the advertisement rather than the health benefits the toothpaste bring.

Central and Peripheral routes to persuasion used by advertisement

The advertisement uses mainly peripheral route persuasive strategy as it gives the audience minimal information about the message it is trying to convey until the last part where the message about homosexuals being denied civil marriage surfaced. It aims to provoke an emotional reaction from the viewers, not focusing on gaining knowledge through facts and statistics. The video also includes peripheral cues such as the background music and different scenes which are eye-catching and slightly abnormal to pique the audience's interest, as well as to make the audience relate and sympathise with the advertisement.

Throughout the video, the guy knocks on many different doors, asking different people for Sinead's hand in marriage and thanking them for their approval. He is also seen travelling on difficult paths and even having to converse in another language to a person who does not speak English. All these make the viewers sympathise with him for the length he has to go through just for a hand in marriage.

As for the background music, it is called 'Ocean and a Rock' and it is played throughout the video softly. The singer has a soft and nice voice which makes it a beautiful and heart-warming song. The lyrics talk about a girl that has fallen in love with a guy. She is now in somewhere far away from him, and she is on her way back home to meet her true love, and the distance means nothing to her. This music helps to further draw our sympathy toward the guy in the video.

At the end of the video, the advertisement uses a more central route strategy as they ask the question: 'How would you feel if you had to ask 4 million people for permission to get married?' In the video, Sinead (Pronounced as Shin + aid) is an Irish female name which leads us to understanding that the main lead is asking for everyone's approval to marry someone of the opposite gender. This question would make viewers think further like, 'Why is this guy facing so much difficulties to get married?' and 'Why must he ask everyone in Ireland for approval?'

'Lesbians and gay men are denied access to civil marriage in Ireland' is the actual message that the video is trying to convey. The video turns the table on a heterosexual man having to go through great lengths in order to get married show the absurdity that homosexual couples are deprived of their basic rights to get married. The ones that disapproved same-sex marriage are the members of the public, which is unfair for the Lesbians and gay men since opposite-sex marriage are normalised and not shamed. This video is to influence the viewer to think about what it would cost them to approve same-sex marriage and what rights to they have to judge someone else's marriage when no one was to judge theirs. Lastly, information about an Irish non-profit advocacy group, Marriage Equality is flashed, which makes the whole advertisement more credible since it is backed by an organisation.

Use of Emotions, Fear and Stereotyping Techniques

A picture paints a thousand words, but a video shows a thousand pictures. Advertisements are a very powerful tool as it appeals to the viewer's curiosity, then creates an impact that is memorable to us. As emotions can affect our attitudes, using positive emotions would help to manipulate how we think of a product; using fear would deter certain behaviours; or using stereotypes, to influence our speech and actions.

Use of Emotions

By pairing positive emotions with the product, viewers would more likely to think of the product in the future whenever they feel happy and positive, which encourages them to purchase the product. Hence, when emotions are affected, the affective-based attitude, as well as behavioural-based attitudes, are being manipulated.

Such popular product advertisement would be Coca-Cola. Whenever one feels happy, he/she would celebrate and drink Coca-Cola. By using happy and exciting music, or by having some pleasant and relaxing scents and smell in the shop, it would make someone feel good and positive and form a positive connection with the product. This would affect our attitudes towards the product. Recently, I been to MUJI and their shops had diffusers set up at the store front. The diffusers have different scents, but the strongest scent had a very relaxing and pleasant scent. The store also plays soft and relaxing music, which makes a customer feel relaxed, positive, comfortable and would want to look around and stay longer.

Use of Fear

Advertisement could also incite fear into viewers, emphasizing on the negative consequences of such behaviour, and encouraging them to change their behaviour. When we are fearful, we would either fight and face the problem or try to escape. If too much fear is being inflicted, the person would become defensive, and if the fear inflicted is not enough, the person may not even act.

Both self-esteem and an outlet to escape from the fear play a part in how successful fear-arousing can be. For instance, if a person has high self-esteem, he would face the fear and deal with the threat. Also, if the person has an outlet to escape from, which is the solution to the problem, he would act and change his attitude.

One example would be the anti-smoking advertisement. They often carry graphic images such as rotten teeth, babies harmed, or damaged lungs on cigarette packs as a warning to smokers the detrimental effects of long-term smoking. For beginner smokers, the picture would arouse fear in them, and they can still act upon it and escape from smoking. But as for long-term users, it would not be as effective as they are more interested in the pleasure in smoking rather than the consequences. Some people would also think that there is no way they can stop smoking after they had done so for many years.

Use of Stereotyping

Another way of how advertisement manipulate our attitudes would be through stereotyping. Cultural stereotype is where an advertisement is being played for countless times until it changes our thinking and become normalised in our minds. When Stereotypes are being used, it could change how we talk to and act towards people. Some stereotypes would be that girls like pink and guys like blue, and that all Indians would know how to make roti pratas or are construction workers.

Emotions, Fear and Stereotyping Techniques used in Advertisement

For the chosen advertisement, it uses emotions and stereotyping techniques to stir the viewer's emotions and to change their attitudes. The background music is beautiful and positive, and will affect our affective-based and behaviour-based attitudes when we think of marriage. For married couples, they would have gone through different problems and difficulties when trying to get married such as gaining approval from their disapproving parents and to-be parents-in-law. So, they would be able to sympathise with the guy in the video better.

After gaining their sympathy and piquing the interest of the viewers, the advertisement drops the message, to make the viewers agree that they should not be against same-sex marriage. The reason would be that getting a marriage opposed by one or two parties had been a tough experience and same-sex marriage had to face unnecessary opposition by the public, which consists of 4 million people, to the point where it is still illegal to have a same-sex union.

Impact on Attitudes towards same-sex marriage

After watching the advertisement, it had slightly persuaded me as my heart wavered and sympathised with what the homosexuals must go through. I was also convinced that I should not meddle with someone else's love affair, just as homosexuals did not oppose heterosexual marriage.

Yet, some of my attitudes toward same-sex marriage had remained unchanged, as it does not feel right when I see a same-gender couple acting intimately, or when they are raising their child which is not of natural birth of a man and a woman. Same-sex couple having a child just felt surreal to me, as it not a family unit with a father and a mother.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my implicit and explicit attitudes continue to stay the same. However, Since I was slightly persuaded by the advertisement, my affective-based attitude had changed. It also changed my behavioural-based attitude to be one that is more sympathetic. My cognitive attitude does not change as I still firmly believe in the teaching of Christianity. Looking at how the world has a lot of problems and suffering such as this issue had led me to worry about the future of this world.

References

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