It's always been a big question to me where my comfort lies in the area of revealing my body. Am I am doing the world any good when I show off my frame? Am I building self-confidence or feeding the machine that tells us women should be seen, not heard. And better yet, women should be nearly naked, and perpetually on display in 2012?

It would seem that marriage is some form of societal construct that allows for two individuals to create some type of life partnership and, in a gestalt manner, to be legally recognized as such. The result is that in an array of legal matters -- from taxation to insurance to inheritance -- these individuals are now perceived within the rules of this partnership. The reality is that society saw in the marital unit a structure that was beneficial to society, for one reason or another, and so it responded accordingly. The fact is, though, that changes in society have made marriage irrelevant in regard to those original benefits to society.