Four Wives, OK. Why Not Four Husbands? A Democratization of Polygamy.

While I know her article was meant to be satire, I would have no problem with polygamy if women could take many husbands, and the family was self contained (like 3 men all married to the same 3 women and vice versa) but polygamy as practiced by these Muslims and by the FDLS is an abomination against society, if one man takes 4 wives, 3 men shall have no wives, thereby creating losers like Mohammed Atta who think their only hope of getting laid is in the afterlife. Even in supposedly enlightened America we make light of this, there is even a show on HBO. I say do selective enforcement on those assholes in Utah, throw the men in jail if they have more than one wife, it is 2010 if they insist on being medieval, lets get medieval on their asses.

As to the Middle east, the sooner we get away from oil the better, lets see how long these Sheikhs last without oil money propping them up.

Jeez Louise, Marty! Switch to decaf!

Polyandry?

Polly Andry.

Sorry Marty. That comment should have been directed to blackton. My bad, but my excuse is I was reading The Spine on a handheld on a commuter train on those wonderful 1840's railbeds we use in the Northeast. I guess I missed where yours ended and his began.

Blackton: it does not sense to have a woman marry three or four husbands. Not if you consider that the primary reason underlying polygamy is having as many children as you can. Men do not produce children. They can inseminate but that's about it. They need an organism to incubate the foetus. A wife is something of a production unit in this respect. A woman having three or four husbands is as logically plausible as one factory having three or four CEO's simultaneously working on the same unit. I mean, what would be the point, really?

Having said that, after watching the HBO series "Big Love" which presents an almost functional polygamous marriage, Mormon-style, I've been telling my husband that indeed there is a lot to be said in favour of such arrangements: if you are a wife, you don't have to worry about babysitters, the household work is fairly divided, with the youngest wife doing most of the heavy lifting, and when you don't feel like you-know-what, there are always others who will step in to relieve you of your wifely duties.

Actually, I can find nothing against the concept and many reasons to support this life style.

But then, I've been also developing the thesis that women should marry gay men and reverse the dominance of straight men in the marriage market. For the simple reason that gay men make better partners to women.

Stuart, decaf? Never, else I would never be awake. Stuart, read this months National Geo. They have an extensive article about the FDLS. They expel male children at a young age, throwing to into a society that they are not prepared for, all in the name of Jesus, or John Smith, or whoever these jackasses claim to worship

Noga, in a part of India, due to a surfeit of men, where women often have 2 husbands, with the husbands being brothers. In this way the male bloodline does pass on via one brother or the other. China has a surplus of 50 million men. That country better legalize gay marriage right quick or it is in for a rough ride.
And the purpose of polygamy being to have many children? That is what they say, but society would have more children one man to one husband since a man can devote his seed to one women all the time thereby increasing chances of conception. Now if you are saying it is for one man to have many children, well that ain't best for genetic diversity. If only 25% of the men reproduced generation to generation we would wind up with people of the intelligence of a Hamas leader.

I think hers is a delightful idea that I support enthusiastically. Four husbands sounds like a bit much, two or three would be more realistic I think.

Hard to believe you are taking this subject so seriously, blackton.

noga, I live near the railway line wherein migrants from Central America make their way north, periodically you hear of women kidnapped, raped, sold into prostitution, and it will only get worse, especially in the 3rd world where so many girls have been aborted. As I said, I have no real problem with plural marriages provided it goes both ways, but except for a few isolated parts of the world it doesn't. I have been to rural schools in China where there were 17 boys to 3 girls, etc. in a class.

On a lighter note, years ago when I was teaching in China, I brought up the fact that there were 110 men for every 100 women in class once (it is now much worse), trying to elicit responses from the guys to know their best chances of getting a wife was to work hard and treat women right, but when I asked "what will you do?" to a male student, he stood up and said "I will kill 10 guys."