Elizabeth Brake is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 2025.[1] Prior to that she was Professor at Rice University. She is known for her works on ethics and political philosophy.[2][3][4] Brake coined the term amatonormativity to describe the widespread belief that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship.[5]
Her book Minimizing Marriage received Honorable Mention for the American Philosophical Association Book Prize in 2014. Brake is a former editor of the Journal of Applied Philosophy (2018-2023) and starting in January 2024, she will be an associate editor at Ethics.[6]
Work
Brake has a PhD from University of St Andrews (1999) with a dissertation titled Marriage, contract, and the state.[7]
Minimizing Marriage and amatonormativity
In her 2012 book Minimizing Marriage, amatonormativity was coined as the set of societal assumptions that everyone prospers with an exclusive romantic relationship to capture societal assumptions about romance.[8][9] Brake wanted to describe the pressure she received by many to prioritize marriage in her own life when she did not want to. Amatonormativity extends beyond social pressures for marriage to include general pressures involving romance.[9][10] The word amatonormativity comes from amatus, which is the Latin word for “loved”, and normativity, referring to societal norms.[11] Related terms include allonormativity, which means a worldview that assumes all people experience sexual and romantic attraction, and compulsory sexuality, which means social norms and practices that marginalize non-sexuality.[12]
According to Brake, one way in which amatonormativity is institutionally applied is the law and morality surrounding marriage. Loving friendships, queerplatonic, and other relationships are not given the same legal protections romantic partners are given through marriage.[13]
After Marriage
In 2016 she co-edited a book of essays titled After Marriage: Rethinking Marital Relationships. The New York Times wrote in a review of the book that Brake argues that the contractual benefits of marriage might be extended to relationships that are not romantic, such as friendships.[14]
Books
- Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law, Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Philosophical Foundations of Children’s and Family Law, edited with Lucinda Ferguson, Oxford University Press, 2018.
- After Marriage: Rethinking Marital Relationships (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2016.
References
- ^ Weinberg, Justin (5 May 2025). “Brake and Dandelet (and two others) to Wisconsin – Daily Nous”. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
- ^ McKeever, Natasha (1 August 2013). “Elizabeth Brake: Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality and the Law”. Res Publica. 19 (3): 285–289. doi:10.1007/s11158-012-9210-6. ISSN 1572-8692. S2CID 254988086.
- ^ Maras, Rhianna; Sutton, Damien; Marchan, Mary; Rothblum, Esther (2 January 2015). “Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law by Elizabeth Brake”. Journal of Homosexuality. 62 (1): 121–124. doi:10.1080/00918369.2014.944057. ISSN 0091-8369. S2CID 145383169.
- ^ “Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law”. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
- ^ Brake, Elizabeth (29 August 2017). “Amatonormativity”. Elizabeth Drake. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ “Elizabeth Brake”. Elizabeth Brake.
- ^ Brake, Elizabeth (1999). Marriage, Contract, and the State. PhD dissertation, University of St Andrews.
- ^ “Do you feel under pressure to find The One?”. BBC. 2020. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
- ^ a b Bonos, Lisa (6 July 2017). “Bugging your friend to get into a relationship? How amatonormative of you”. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 14 October 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Brake, Elizabeth (29 August 2017). “Amatonormativity”. Elizabeth Drake. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Baer, Drake (31 March 2017). “There’s a word for the assumption that everybody should be in a relationship”. The Week Publications Inc. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Mollet, Amanda L.; Lackman, Brian (24 January 2021). “Allonormativity and Compulsory Sexuality”. Encyclopedia of Queer Studies in Education. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004506725_006. ISBN 978-90-04-50672-5. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- ^ “Should Marriage Be Abolished, Minimized, or Left Alone?”. Psychology Today. Archived from the original on 4 July 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
- ^ Ryerson, James (5 April 2016). “Love in the Time of Monogamy”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
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