Polygamists?

Question

I am doing a paper for my Philosophy of Love and s*x class and was hoping to get some different views on the topic of polygamist.

Answer 1

I think that polygamy should be legal as long as all of the individuals involved are of legal age  and mentally able to consent to such a relationship.  Government should not be in the business of regulating consenting adults private sexual relationships.

Unfortunately for most people, the word polygamy conjures up images of young girls forced into relationships with old  men.  (This should not be legal, and the individuals responsible for this type of behavior should be punished!)

There have been many arguments for proponents of polygamist relationships.  Many feel that it would cure some of the ills facing our society.  For example, it would reduce the divorce rate; keeping families with children together.  etc...

Answer 2

Polygamy or polyamory?

I think polygamy (one man, multiple wives) is a religiously-instigated unbalanced system that reinforces biologically-inaccurate gender assumptions, not to mention sustaining a patriarchy at the expense of women's rights. I'm referring to the assumption that men are sociobiologically programmed to spread their seed to as many women as possible and women are programmed to bond with only one man, which has been translated now into a norm of men wanting s*x all the time and women not wanting it very often. Like I said: inaccurate. I'm not saying women that are involved are brainwashed at all, but they have been socialized into accepting this system, while there are other options for relationships that would benefit them much, much more. And I'm not saying that to be a feminist - if the roles were reversed and men were the minority, it would be just as bad for them in a system of polyandry.

Now, polyamory is totally cool with me. I can't personally participate in it because I have jealousy issues. But those that do typically recognize that love is not a zero-sum game in which you have to take love away from one person in order to love another. They believe that just one person fulfilling every need you have is a ridiculous concept (I can relate!), so they have multiple functional relationships and get the most out of each one of them. And there's no power imbalance because they have rules against deceit, and if one member of the principle couple wants to close the relationship, it's closed. Sounds cool to me.

Answer 3

Have you asked your husbands?  lol

The only thing that makes sense to me is lifelong monogamy, from first experience until death do you part.  

I guess that puts me a one end of your spectrum, unless someone committed to lifelong virginity shows up.