I admit I worded my comment vaguely because I was rather tired and wasn’t sure how I should express the nuance I feel around that. But to fix that:

In my experience, going from a reasonable, mutually healthy level of intimacy to one party just completely lacking interest is essentially never the core issue in play, but it is an exacerbating issue. For instance, with my ex, who I was with for five years: for the first couple years, things were pretty great. Then she ended up slipping into perhaps the worst long-term episode of severe depression and video game addiction I have ever seen in my life. I’m talking 12-14h at least a day in a KRPG, completely withdrawing from IRL social interaction (including with me, for the most part) and supplanting it with constantly being on voice chat with the various clans she was a part of over time in the game. Mind you, I enjoy gaming myself, and have struggled with overdoing in the past as well, but never to this extent in terms of length and severity. And despite trying to find numerous ways to help/support her, encouraging her to find different and better therapists and psychiatrists, and figuring out how to rebalance her meds - including offering to just be on the phone with me for 30 seconds at the beginning of the call and just saying “I give permission for my partner to discuss this stuff with you and try to find a better solution because my mental state prohibits me from doing that right now”, being effectively unable to make any motion in a positive mental health direction. To the point that it got so bad that I became severely depressed and began aggressively self medicating, eventually to the point that I realized staying in the dynamic would probably kill me, in a very literal sense. She would barely come out of her room for dinner towards the end, and I was absolutely not about to get her to just let me “use” her for intimate gratification when the chemistry was completely gone and she was gonna just lie there like a fish - I’d have felt like I was assaulting her, and I refuse to do that.

So: no, it shouldn’t be the grounds for a divorce (or partner separation, I happen to not give a shit about marriage outside of the context of tax benefits, but I take a committed partnership very seriously), but it can and should be considered an exacerbating circumstance in a relationship that has extremely serious, long-lasting problems that essentially put everything into a death spiral.

Also: I’m sharing this for context and nuance as an explanation of my opinion. I’m not asking for or desiring feedback or constructive (or otherwise) criticism or judgement. Me explaining this is an infinitesimal fraction of the lived experience of it, like you saying your partner is “pretty cool”, when there are myriad shades of nuance to a partnership. It is a closed chapter of my life, and I am better for it.

Your argument seems more against religion (and inferrably monogamy) than it does marriage itself. Especially if “civil union” is your alternative.

I don’t see what the benefit would be to just go through the family law and replace the term “marriage” with “civil union”.

I think you are misunderstanding this thread.

The person I’m replying to thinks the law change means you are potentially trapped in a marriage you no longer want and need your spouses ‘approval’ to leave (in the case of a sexually dead marriage) - which isn’t just US right wing fantasy, it’s been a reality for women worldwide and still is in many places.

They are incorrect btw. You have the right to leave a dead bedroom marriage. You have the right to find a more sexually compatible partner. The law changes we’re discussing do not remove any of these from people under french law.

Well i listed a series of literal legal divorce categories in france, just in english names.

the at fault one is the only one affected by this change, and you can still have other reasons why you think the other person tanked the marriage ( a “fault” divorce is basically “I can’t stay married to this person, they broke it” which is why they’re saying "no, you can’t say “refused to give me the sex i want” - It’s a pressure tactic that can get in the bin)

Like all laws you can get dispensations and other proofs - like you said in this economy you might me stuck together but if you have separate personal bills and can prove you’ve been out dating other people, living in a different room and having a separate life it would probably fly. Also again, it’s just the sex that’s no longer a reason, for you to get to the point where you have a dead bed marriage and are unable to talk out a reasonable arrangement or divorce there are going to be a lot of other reasons you can cite for an at fault divorce.

But realistically, most people work it out. An at fault is usually a punishment move. Sometimes the punishment is deserved , sometimes it’s just spite. This law aims to remove sexual coercion.