Talk:Husband

Etymology

Who's this Armand Erasmus? I checked with the American Heritage Dictionary from where that bit was cited and found no reference to this "first husband."

Further goals

Since this is no longer my "personal" article and there were a number of other editors, I rephrased the paragraphs, and added more sources. Still, there are other things to do:

• Buddhism
• Islam (history vs. contemporary customs and traditions)
• What the "other regions" section should become

--Flammingo^Hey 15:22, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Ma malakat aymanukum and sex

This article states that sex outside marriage is frowned upon in Islam, but Ma malakat aymanukum and sex says the contrary.

200.175.81.104 (talk) 01:10, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Man instead of Male

The article starts with the phrase "A husband is a male lifetime partner in a marital relationship.". In my opinion, it would be better if the article was referring to the gender, stating "A husband is a man lifetime partner in a marital relationship.", and no to the sex. Taliandr (talk) 20:10, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

The page says "In a marriage between two men, both spouses may be considered husbands." I don't understand how this was determined. Is there a source on this? A husband is defined as the male party in a marriage. Logic would indicate to me that if there is a male, there must also be a female. Otherwise, why would husband be defined as the male portion of the marriage? I am questioning whether this is a legitimate part of the definition of the word. 16:09, 10 September 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Patsfanrob (talk • contribs)

The evolving nature of marriage is that "same sex" (same gender) marriages are becoming legally acceptable in some countries.

Perhaps it might not have been so in 2013, but certainly in 2015 there is no logical justification for assuming that if there is a male party to a marriage, there must also be a female party to that marriage. Likewise, that one partner is female does not preclude the other partner from being female.

The fact that same-sex marriages remain proscribed in other countries shouldn't prevent us replacing the terms "husband" and "wife" to "spouse" unless it is necessary in cases where "spouse" is insufficient (e.g. a widow is always a surviving wife, a widower is always a surviving husband).

And certainly, whilst acknowledging the semantic difference between "sex" and "gender", it is perfectly appropriate to use the term "male" and "female" instead of "man" and "woman". That's not only because male/female may be nouns or adjectives, whereas man/woman are always nouns. I don't believe it would be as appropriate to use the terms "masculine" and "feminine".

There's a question of NPOV. The word used must reflect the reality of marriage rather than a non-neutral point of view, but should always be accurate in context. Henry VIII had several wives; Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard each had a husband. Husbands and Wives today have spouses; each spouse might be a husband or a wife.

So, I think there is some work to be done revising this article. But it's not a "search and replace" kind of revision; there are some places that require more thought than others, and there are places where it's necessary to use the gender-specific term instead of "spouse". Twistlethrop (talk) 07:12, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

• Some have already made some changes; I've gone through the article and made some additional ones. Any suggestions or outstanding needed?

I agree with other posters. This article needs to be revised in my view. It is grossly misleading and rather offensive. It specifically suggests that "A husband is a male in a marital relationship with a female". Homosexual marriage is now legal in many jurisdictions as has been mentioned and the aforementioned sentence seems to completely ignore this fact. Homosexual marriage has been legal in the UK for example since 2014. It seems rather bizarre that the last comment on this article was made in September 2015, yet no move has been made to edit this article to remove the misleading comment that a husband is in "a marital relationship with a female". Whilst this is true for some couples, obviously it is untrue for others. I think a more appropriate opening sentence would be "A husband is a male in a marital relationship". The definition of the word has changed over time and this needs to be acknowledged. The Oxford dictionary for example defines a husband as "A married man considered in relation to his spouse". I don't see any logical reason why this opening sentence should not be edited.

Rhys Hoffman (talk) 15:41, 23 September 2016 (UTC):

Husband is an Insulting term for gay couples. Please stop using it.

Please stop Insulting gay partners by using the term husband for their type of relationship. Husband is only used for straight couples. Gay couples prefer to be called each others Life Partner as it is more fair and equal than the dominating sounding term husband. Please stop undoing edits that correct this.75.174.112.26 (talk) 19:05, 7 December 2016 (UTC)