What does mixed marriage mean?

Answer 1

A "mixed "marriage" is a marriage between people from different religions or from different races or ethnic communities. The term is used when the two religions, races, or ethnic groups are thought by many to be incompatible in some way, such as marriage between a white man and a black woman in the US south in the 1950s, so that it is appropriate or necessary to specify that it is not a "usual" marriage.

Answer 2

A mixed marriage is one where the partners are different in some regard. The difference is usually in the eyes of third parties who feel a moral or other superiority to the actual participants. The "mixed" part may bee due to:

• Male/female marriage is obviously mixed but acceptable to most whereas a same sex marriage (not mixed) would be frowned on
• Different racial groups
• Different families (In the southern states a Hatfield marrying a McCoy would be mixed as they were feuding. Similar to Romeo and Juliet's families position on their marriage)
• Different ethnic groups
• Different religions (e.g. Protestant and Catholic)
• Long term unrest between related ethnic groups (Arab peoples and Hebrew peoples are both Semitic peoples, but because of religious and cultural differences, a marriage between these two related ethnic groups could be called a mixed marriage as well. )
• As same sex marriage is identified as one type of marriage a mixed marriage might refer to a male/female marriage.

Answer 3

A mixed-orientation marriage is one in which a gay man marries a heterosexual woman, or a lesbian marries a heterosexual man.