Equal Families, Equal Parents, Equal Spouses, Equal Marriage: The Case of the Missing Patriarch

The Patriarch of Loch Law: A Cautionaty Feminist Fable In the submarine world of pristine Loch Law, some say - notably elders of the feminist family law acaderny, silver haired crones of iny ilk - there thrives a wily resilient relational form - a shadowy figure that swims in the apparently even waters of Loch Law. There are new fresh streams that feed the old Loch. Within living memory, the Loch was fed by other streams, the stream of Pure Patriarchy and its tributaries,Tender Years, Matrimonial Offences, and It's My Farm. Some say that those streams and tributaries were damned and drained, and, now, Loch Law is replenished with the new spring fed waters of Gender Neutrality and Formal Equality. But the feminists say, they see it still, the Patriarch of Loch Law. Its stealth they say is legendary; seldom does its mighty face surface in the Loch. Cloaked like a chameleon in familial ideological form and speaking the discourse of choice and love, the Patriarch of the Loch still makes cameo appearances, staying scarcely long enough to pay, and less ofen to share, when children's shoes need to be purchased, when toilets need to be scrubbed, when groceries need to be purchased, when homework needs to be checked, and when birthday parties need to be prepared. The women in these homes know the Patriarch of Loch Law exists, but they do not speak of it, for their husbands, nay spouses, nay partners are good fathers, nay good parents. The Patriarch of Loch Law is gone, they say, like the dodo, the dinosaur, and the black and white TV that brought us Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. To the feminists, they say, that was then; the Patriarch of Loch Law is a was. But some of us see him still. We say he is not a phantom of a fictionalized feminist legal past. He does not simply haunt our memories and old cases; he shapes and irqluences us still. The Patriarch of Loch Law is chameleon like - sometimes monster, sometimes siren, sometimes phantom. He is poised to welcome a new stream, Equal Marriage, to the Loch. We say, it will take more than feeble law reform and litigation to drive him out. He retains the capacity to be as intrusive as a former lover and as enduring as a child's father. And besides, he has friends in high places, and new rainbow fish to fry.

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