Why do people talk bad about marriage?

Depends on where you are from, where you are, what the laws are, what the people(marriage pool) is like. Stateside its very horrific and lopsided especially for guys. I've even had front row seats to a couple of situations. The rest were from groups and shattered lives on hand who've been through some real horrors. They don't want to return to it. Then you've got some people who have never been married catching on to what is going on and seeing what others have been through. Things a wife could do: She can pretend to be another person and change back to something worse after the "I do's" She can be too expectative/entitled (random loving gifts and occasional jewelry is one thing, but plenty of materialists and control freaks exist, even some that are hidden or programmed as such due to media/societal bombardment). She can claim a guy is worthless/lazy (even if he's not, and even if he's above and beyond the norm, i.e. she's being overcritical), and divorce him, no questions asked. She can withold intimacy. She can "just get bored of him" and divorce him, no questions asked. She can also falsely claim abuse/rape and the laws and courts will assume him guilty, and that's that. She can abuse him(emotionally, verbally, physically, socially) and thanks to society and the laws no one cares, no one believes him, some people laugh, others say "its fine" or "he deserved it" -_-. The worst part is the emotional, verbal and social abuse happen often but some women don't see it, others don't recognize they are doing it/or when it happens. And then there are those that revel in it (all abuse including the physical) She can cheat on him and the general perception is, its always his fault (nevermind the truth, nevermind what really happened, nevermind her personality) She can commit maternity fraud and lie about reproductive issues, birth control and the like (his opinion be damned, life situations be damned) She can commit paternity fraud, i.e. cheating with another man and passing of the child on the sucker hubby. In plenty of states its actually legal and the husband is responsible for the child, no choice (isn't that cute? I thought choice was everything in reproduction, guess I'm wrong). She can clean him out with some lopsided divorce rulings by a subjective court making divorce 66-33 or 70-30 in her favor, 80-20 with children. (the common legal phrase is "entitled to a standard of living") She can take the kids away, she'll almost always get them in custody and she can use them in a divorce or custody battle (even if she's the dangerous parent) She can shut the father out of his children's lives physically, I mean shutting out real interaction and parenting, (but not financially -_-) I'll point out the obvious thing. I already know there are men that are lazy husbands, men that are good pretenders, men that are very terrible lovers, men that abuse their wives, men that abuse their children. But this is bombarded in the media, in the news, in the courts, in public in general. People rarely or never hear about warped wives and mothers. People rarely or never hear about cruel wives and mothers. Even if they do, usually they are usually excused for some reason or other. But how often is the violent/deceptive/lazy/stupid/killer/unloving/ boyfriend, husband and father shown in all of the mentioned media? QUITE often.

happi3, you may have gotten married already and it is also possible that you are managing your marriage very happily-I want to tell you marriage is a life long contract-some people get into marriage with ulterior mottives, not out of love-a spouse may hurriedly marry some one out of the spur of the moment and when they get to live their marriage lives, they quickly and sadly discover the person they thought they were marrying is entirely different in his/her true colours and hell is let lose onto the marriage-a supposedly happy marriage life turns out to be horror story-so those who have not given a relationship time are usually the victims of the other horrible side of marriage-but marriage in itself as an institution, is intended to make your shared world blue and intensely enjoyable-there are lucky people out there who are soul mates in marriage!