Comments on: “Sister Wives:” just your average, everyday, polygamous family

By: Oblio

Oblio — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 04:39:52 +0000

This interest in polygamy is creepy. Where does it come from? I have heard more about polygamy in the last 2 or 3 years than in the previous 30. Is it about anticipating Islamization in the West? Is it about single females in the city competing for and sometimes sharing alpha males? Is it about the decline of monogamy into serial monogamy as a variant of polygamy? Is it about polygamy as the next transgressive frontier after same-sex marriage? Is it coded anti-Mormon propaganda? All of the above?

People are interested for some reason. What is it?

By: Dennis

Dennis — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:17:32 +0000

I wished being quiet worked, but alas it doesn’t.

By: anna

anna — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:29:22 +0000

Heck, I can barely even handle a regular relationship with one boyfriend, I can’t even imagine something weird. Like relative marriages, arranged marriages, major-age-difference marriages, mail order marriages, you name it. I do not even see what the attraction is. Relationships are weird enough, no need to go trying to make them weirder!!!

By: MissJean

MissJean — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:57:13 +0000

“Men should not have to listen to the neurosis of the feme americanus half so much as he currently must in order to try to save some portion of the family wealth for his children.”

But men don’t want to save some portion for their children. They want to spend it now on a boat (and a vehicle big enough to haul it), season tickets, a “Vegas” night with the guys, and a powertool just like the one they “lost” in their man-cave garage – only newer. It’s only the brutal budgeting of the americanae that ensures the children aren’t eating 10-day-old McDonald’s fries from between the cushions of the couch or car.

Seriously, I don’t think the average American couple has it as “together” as our grands did in some ways. My great-grandfather turned his money over to his wife because he was working in lumber and mining camps. My great-grandmother didn’t have time to be frivolous as they ran the farm, sold butter to local grocers (including price-negotiation), and create a household budget. My grandmother’s “luxury” purchase from her job in a VA hospital (helping elderly Civil War vets at that time) was farm equipment for her husband.

Compared to them, we spend a lot of time and resources on nonsense.

By: MissJean

MissJean — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:43:49 +0000

Two major problems with polygamous culture:

1. You have to get rid of young unmarried men; e.g. send them away to fight for resources and the right to reproduce with women outside the community.
2. Increased risk of in-breeding after fewer generations because there are relatively fewer fathers in the community.

By: Artfldgr

Artfldgr — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:11:30 +0000

Dennis, if your the guy, you let them pick, be quiet, and just go along to get along…

By: Dennis

Dennis — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:59:20 +0000

Can you imagine having the discussion about where to eat with 4 wives? “You pick something because I could eat almost anything.” How about……? No I don’t feel like that. How about……..? No I don’t feel like that. You just know that almost nothing you select is going to be acceptable and you are going to endure 4 wives doing this?

By: LAG

LAG — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:13:47 +0000

Doom’s comment, in “the right social, civil, and legal community, 3 or 4 wives would be fine…with small changes in law and beliefs and getting women on board, this would not be a problem,” reminds me of the physics cartoon where one physicist points at a blackboard covered with equations and says, “and here a miracle occurs.”

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:27:04 +0000

AVI – well, some movies are not very far from reality…like Raise the Red Lantern – from difficult times and savage lands… Interesting that men with fantasies of lording over women, making them jump for food and survival never imagine themselves in subservient position. It’s like those teenage girls who fantasize about being a medieval princess, never – her maid.

By: Assistant Village Idiot

Assistant Village Idiot — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:11:40 +0000

Doom, I admit I was half-kidding, suggesting that one wife is more than this poor wimp can handle, and I suspect most other males here were as well.

But you didn’t pick that up, and moved straight into some bizarre social structure musings. And as Tatyana accurately points out, you may have revealed more about your thinking than you actually wanted to.

I think everyone is hoping that you’re not married, actually. The abstract reality you are sure is the actual one which we cowardly thinkers just can’t bear to face, is actually based on movies and sci-fi novels.