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Now that we've determined that gender can no longer be used to define marriage, I think we need to throw numbers out. After all, who are we to determine what happens in someone's bedroom?
We don't need government telling us who and how many we can marry. It's really quite simple.
Polygamy by definition is one man with more than one wife at the same time.
Polyandry by definition is one woman with more than one husband at the same time.
Both relationships are heterosexual.
There are more of both than most folks realize.
There are slightly more women than men in our population, and entering into polygamy is one way a single woman can become a mother, with child care support from sister wives and their common husband.
Since women live longer than men, there are polyandrous relationships in rest homes, where one woman has several husbands, but restricts her favors and wifely support to just them and doesn't play the field.
Of course neither are legal, but a religious marriage does not have to be legal for the people involved to consider themselves married. There are always ministers to be found who will conduct such marriages.
And don't scoff about the romance that goes on in rest homes. There's a lot of hanky-panky that goes on in them.
Polygamy by definition is one man with more than one wife at the same time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by banjomike
Polyandry by definition is one woman with more than one husband at the same time.
Sorry to be a bit technical, but just for the record:
Polygamy literally means "many married." (poly=many, gamos=marriage). In loose common usage, people often use polygamy to refer to "many wives" because historically in most cases if anyone had multiple spouses, they were wives. The actual word for "many wives" would be polygyny. ("gyny" referring to female, as in "gynecologist," etc.)
Given the historical baggage with the word 'polygamy' it might be nice to come up with some different word for polyamorous marriage but, in any case, I do think that there will be some movement over the next decade toward legalizing non-monogamous marriages. In fact, if I were a betting type of person, I'd be willing to bet money that there will be a poly-marriage movement by the end of the decade. The reason for this, however, won't have much of anything to do with gay marriage. A major underlying factor leading to poly marriage will be the internet. We've had plenty of social change prior to the internet, of course, but the internet accelerates everything. There have always been polyamorous people, but due to social pressures they've tended to be ashamed and discreet, so it was easy for people who felt themselves to be naturally non-monogamous to live their entire lives feeling as though they were just "bad people" (weak character, sinful, emotionally immature, sexually gluttonous, etc.). Nowadays, we have the word "polyamorous" and it is incredibly easy to discover that a large percentage of the population is, in fact, not really sold on the concept of monogamy. Non-monogamy is starting to find its place under the general umbrella concept of diversity. The historical forces that used to make people feel ashamed of non-monogamy are disintegrating. All of this is already happening, and the rate at which it is happening is increasing with each passing year. I'm not saying that everyone is, or should be, non-monogamous. I am saying that, once the stigma/shame associated with non-monogamy is lost, a substantial percentage of the population will start to identify themselves as non-monogamous. The internet will facilitate this loss of shame.
The simple fact of the matter is that there is really no good reason why a secular government should prevent poly-marriages (so long as there are limits to benefits, etc., as I outlined in my previous post), and the internet will accelerate social awareness of this simple fact of life. So I suggest that ya'll get used to the fact that a major movement toward legalizing poly-marriages will happen within your lifetime. I'm not saying that the movement will necessarily succeed, but I am predicting with high confidence that it will become a significant social issue.
Last edited by Gaylenwoof; 02-06-2013 at 08:30 AM..
I am not a Mitt Romney fan and I didn't vote for him. However, I recall when he was running in the 2008 primaries, he said he was the only Repub. contender who had had only ONE wife. His branch of the Mormon church, the mainstream branch, does not practice polygamy.
Concerned about the rights of women, in that you don't want them to have the rights?
Oh, quit being a Scandinavian gnome! Polygamy, as it is practiced in most polygamous societies today is very disrespectful to women. Many of them are not even women, they're girls who get forced into marriage, often with senior citizens. They're expected to bear children, then they get cast off when they get a little older and a new "sweet young thing" catches the guy's fancy.
Oh, quit being a Scandinavian gnome! Polygamy, as it is practiced in most polygamous societies today is very disrespectful to women. Many of them are not even women, they're girls who get forced into marriage, often with senior citizens. They're expected to bear children, then they get cast off when they get a little older and a new "sweet young thing" catches the guy's fancy.
So, yes you are for denying rights to women. It's for their own good.
Why not just make forced marriages illegal and have a minimum age requirement?
So, yes you are for denying rights to women. It's for their own good.
Why not just make forced marriages illegal and have a minimum age requirement?
Oh, wait, they already do.
There is no law against forced marriage. You show a cite if you think there is. No one can know the state of mind of anyone applying for a marriage license. Have you ever gotten one? All you have to do is show whatever ID they ask for and pay your money. There are minimum ages; in many states these are quite young, below 18.
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