Polygamy

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By polygamy I mean the kind portrayed on Sister Wives, nothing too far out like Brian Mitchell or that one group in Utah and that other one in Texas.

I watch Sister Wives on TLC because I find the way the Browns live fascinating and amazing that Kody can deal with four wives, especially financially, plus seventeen kids. That's four households.

I marvel at the wives able to control their emotions so jealousy doesn't run rampant.

Anyway, what I wonder is, if polygamy became accepted and widespread because of this show, what would that mean for men trying to find wives? Wouldn't a large number of men be single because all the women are in polygamist marriages? How would that work and what do polygamists think of that question?

I think that the polygamist would say, quite rightly, "That sucks for you."

They probably wouldn't have too big of a problem assuming some rather dominant women take on multiple husbands. "Brother husbands" ...

Any case I don't see polygamy becoming hugely popular if it became legal

now thats "brotherly love" for ya,

i have no doubt it would work for the right people, (same as any relationship really) when you add more people the interconections would start getting tricky i think.
i always found the denoobulan system of having 3 partners, who also have 3 partners, they need not neccesarily be well connected, i always wondered how such a society would look at 4 or 5 steps from a focal point.

"Denobulans were typically polygamous, where a man typically had three wives, who each had three husbands. This created extremely large extended families; Phlox had 720 familial relationships, 42 with sexual possibilities. In addition, Denobulan marriages were not exclusive, and married Denobulans could be intimate with anyone they chose."

//edited

As long as everyone in the marriage agrees to it - a new woman, for example, would be marrying the extant wives as well as the extant husband(s), it probably wouldn't be much of a problem. It might even end some of the serial monogamy we currently see with wealthy people.

So basically everyone would be married to everyone and that would solve all problems except for venereal diseases and inbreeding.

That way all women would have brother husbands and all men would have sister wives.

Nobody would ever be alone.

...
Is that some sort of straw man? No one ever claimed that polygamy would solve all of the world's problems, nor that no one would be alone. STIs would not be more of a problem than they are now; one person being unfaithful could infect the whole group, but if plural marriages decrease unwed cheating then the point would be moot. As for inbreeding, it wouldn't be any more of a problem than it is now; the reason that the FLDS polygs are inbred is because of their isolation (there are similar problems with other self-isolated religious groups), not because of their polygamy.

It is an interesting show.
And it puts a much happier face on polygamy than do other books and newstories about abusive polygamy.

In the unlikelihood that the show caused americans to accept polygamy, and then even desire it -and it spreads beyond the fringes of Utah to the whole nation - then yes- I would think that would cause a shortage of wives, and a rise in the number of single guys.

But this is america where fair is fair, so we would also have to allow polyandry- wives taking multiple husbands. So in theory that would not only be fair to women (who could have multiiple husbands) but to men because guys wouldnt be cut out of having spouses.

But having both polyandry and polygamy at the same time - in the same household.
That would get complicated.

Actually- forget polyandry.
Lets go whole hog with polygamy and this sister wives thing.

That way we could solve the immigration problem.

Have them relax the immigration laws to only allow single females to cross the border, but continue to seal the border from single women and males entering the country. YOu know- a reasonable compromise- between sealing the border and have uncontrolled borders.

That way a steady stream of hot Latinas will flow into the country and create a surplus of women in America. Thus American guys will have no choice but to be polygamous.

Is that a plan, or what!?

Who would the latino men marry?

What Latino men?

The men would be barred from crossing the Rio Grande, and the ladies would be allowed to cross. So the men would have to stay in thier native countries in Latin America so their marital status would not be our problem!

In fact- if the sex ratio got to be a problem in Mexico and latin america ( two many chicos to chicas) then it might force those countries to do the work of stopping the migration from their end and save the USA some work.

^^^^
I imagine a similar sort of logic was bandied about at the dinner table of Caligula.

most people are brother-sister-phobes, or polygamy-phobes, but only like 51% of Californians are homophobes. the intellectually honest position that is not acknowledged is that if your criteria is that it isn't unhealthy and not hurting anyone, then whatever the adult living arrangement, it should be fine by everyone. The adopted political position for the sake of advancing an argument is to say that most of our love-phobias will never grow into a noticeable portion of society (which is true) and also to not acknowledge ones position against brother-sister love or group-love.

I am a brother-sister phobe and a polygamy-phobe and a homophobe. I don't think think they should be allowed to marry.

Not many acknowledge their love-phobes.

ROLF!! !! !!

I forget to mention that it was a "modest" proposal!

I have no problem with the Sister Wives situation and if people want to live that way, let them. In fact I think the kids benefit from having extra moms.

It's a non-issue because plenty of higher-up Muslim men in this country take more than one wife within in their own community but not legally. It's preferable, for me, to adultery...but I still don't think I'd like it to happen to me. That's what happens in the Muslim situation, the men choose polygamy and it's a situation that the women don't choose, it happens to them.

If were to be legalised here, I prefer it if polyandry was, as well. I don't think polygamy would ever really be that popular (it's not really that common amongst Muslims) and polyandry would be even less popular.

I agree with pretty much all of that.

One thing I'd like to clarify for the discussion is that 'polygamy' means more than two partners of either sex. 'Polygyny' means multiple female partners, and 'polyandry' means multiple male partners.