Mariage blanc (from theFrench, literally "white marriage") is a marriage that is withoutconsummation.[1] The persons may have married for a variety of reasons, for example, amarriage of convenience is usually entered into in order to aid or rescue one of the spouses from persecution or harm; or for economic, social or legal advantage. Another variety is alavender marriage, one undertaken to disguise the homosexuality of one or both partners. Asexless marriage, on the other hand, may have begun with the standard expectations.It could also be that the persons chose to get married but are both asexual. A variation on this could be where some form of sexual activity takes place but not intercourse.[citation needed]
The expression may derive from the absence ofhymenal blood on the couple's wedding-night bed-sheets.[2] However, the French wordblanc can also be translated to English as 'blank', as in the sense of empty. For example,cartouche à blanc translates as ablank cartridge, or a cartridge that is lacking a bullet.
An example is of aGentile marrying aJew to protect that person during times of extreme anti-Semitism such as during the lead-up toWorld War II in areas of Europe menaced byNazism: "Baron Federico von Berzeviczy-Pallavicini[3] ... [d]uring the thirties ... made amariage blanc with the niece ofDemel's Jewish owners, which allowed her to enter a convent under his name and survive the war."[4]
InIranwhite marriages are the opposite of a traditionalmariage blanc, meaning a couple cohabiting and having sex without being married. The practice is illegal in Iran,[5] and is heavily decried as an example of "imported western lifestyle", most famously by Supreme LeaderAli Khamenei who described it as "the darkest type of married life".[6] Despite such concerns, the practice became more commonplace at the start of the 21st century.[7][8][9]
Amariage blanc may also result if one or both partners discover after their wedding that they are either incapable of, or unwilling to take part in, sexual intercourse resulting in reproduction. Reasons can includeasexuality,impotence orhypoactive sexual desire disorder,chronic illness ordisability in either or both partners. The marriages ofThomas Carlyle,[10]John Ruskin,Freya Stark andMax Beerbohm are alleged to have not been consummated throughimpotence. The brief marriage ofPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky toAntonina Miliukova might be described as a "lavender marriage".[citation needed]
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