Monogamish: The New Rules of Marriage by Jessica O’Reilly (Transcript)

Full transcript of Jessica O’Reilly’s TEDx Talk titled “Monogamish: The New Rules of Marriage by Jessica O’Reilly”.

Listen to this MP3 audio while reading the transcript: Monogamish – The new rules of marriage by Jessica O’Reilly at TEDxVancouver

TRANSCRIPT:

Wow, hello, everyone. I’m going to put down my phone, and totally resist the urge to snap a selfie to prove I was actually here. As Riaz said, my name is Jessica O’Reilly, and I am a sexologist.

A sexologist is, in fact, a real thing. Do you believe me? Three of you, okay. So you’re all on the side of my parents, I get it, that’s cool, no problem. I got the tiger mom.

Well, a sexologist; what does that mean? That means, I spend a whole lot of time talking about sex. And almost no time actually having it.

But I’m here today to talk to you about a serious subject. We are in a time of crisis. We have a global epidemic on our hands and it’s airborne. It affects the young and the old and knows no geographical bounds. Now, this problem is not unlike other widespread crises, the economy, climate change for instance. But this crisis effects more of us, in a more personal and perceptible fashion. It tears families apart.

It takes the most detrimental toll on the most vulnerable among us and it’s contagious. It’s spreading. Yet somehow, we’re captivated by it. I’m talking about the crisis of the modern monogamous marriage.

Now, if I were to make you a 50/50 offer in any realm of your life, would you take it? If I said, invest in my fund, there’s a 50 per cent chance you’ll see a return. Or sign this business deal, you’ve got a 50 percent chance of failure, but hey, why not? Or hop on this flight, you’ve got a 50/50 shot at making it to your destination safely.

Even if I offered you two free checked bags, you’d probably say no. But the modern monogamous marriage offers even lower statistical odds when you factor in divorce rates and the rates of infidelity.