Who's Afraid of Polygamy?

NY Times ^ | March 11, 2006 | John Tierney

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

If gay marriage becomes legal, its opponents have been warning, the next step in America's moral deterioration will be legalized polygamy. These conservatives won't be happy with "Big Love," the HBO series starting tomorrow night.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Typically the NY Times falls to the left of this debate.

If we can change one rule(one man, one woman) we can certainly change the other rule.(two people)

[Borges]

I saw a preview of this at a movie theater. It looks bad.

[COEXERJ145]

Why any man would want to be married to more than one woman is beyond my comprehension.

[Rutles4Ever]

It's the conga line that never ends!

[TheSuaveOne]

I'm still waiting for a good argument against plural marriages as long as it is between consenting adults...la

[RexBeach]

I don't take HBO anymore. Nearly everything on it is anti-social. "Big Love?" Couldn't care less.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

It can be read here without logging in to the NY Slimes.

[bonfire]

We've been watching "Big Love" and get a kick out of it!

[xtargeter]

Umm, OK. So I have to deal with multiple mother-in-laws? That'd take a stronger man than me.

[Dead Corpse]

There isn't one. But don't expect that to be a popular opinion here.

[Thrusher]

Incrementalism.

[FormerLib]

Yeah, and then they'll start working on allowing close relatives to marry and who knows what next, across species lines perhaps?

[gondramB]

First, Big Love is a really entertaining series - you don't have to like polygamy to enjoy the series anymore than you have approve of the mafia to like the Sopranos.


Second, the issues are related.

In last Sunday's episode the elder Preacher who is the head of the "bad" polygamists gave an interview where he said something like, in light of the recent supreme court ruling recognizing the privacy rights of homosexuals it would appropriate to recognize our privacy rights.

Of course, by the time the media got through with it the headline was "Polygamists are just like gays." :)

[LurkedLongEnough]

I don't buy any TV anymore, but lots of people are still addicted and this gives me concern.

Some thoughts on pushing people to consider polygamy legitimate: Islamic appeasement? Gay lifestyles? Increase the US birthrate? Hollywood sensationalism? Communism? Aging hippies?

Personally, I think it's the aging hippy effect. Someone wanna write "The Hippy Mystique" with me? Given the way the world is turning, would surely be a bestseller.

[Old_Mil]

She told the NOW audience that polygamy "offers an independent women a real chance to have it all" and represented "the ultimate feminist lifestyle."

Ah yes, I was wondering when the feminists would jump on this bandwagon and interpret polygamy to mean one woman marrying multiple men...you know, one to have the kids with, one to support the kids, one to fix things around the house, one to be the cuddleb....

[Jibaholic]

The argument that gay marriage does not lead to polygamy is absurd. Every argument put forth on behalf of gay marriage (equality etc...) also applies to polygamy and incest. If you support gay marriage, you are logically and morally bound to support polygamy.

All relationships between consenting adults are deserving of marriage
Gay relationships are relationships between consenting adults
Therefore, gay relationships are deserving of marriage

All C is D
G is C
G is D

Substitute polygamy and incest for gay relationships and the logic still applies.

[blueminnesota]

The only women who would be happy with polygamy are the ones who don't want very much attention from their husbands, the perpetual headache ones.

[kaktuskid]

Next...man/horse marriages.
Then...man/man/woman/woman/horse/dog/vegetable/parakeet marriages.

[sandbar]

>>Why any man would want to be married to more than one woman is beyond my comprehension.>>

I've seen this show and they show this well. The children are the easy part, it's the jealous, bickering women that get to him.

[YOUGOTIT]

There is no place in history that says marriage is between people other than men and women so that is not the question. The question is: When did marriage between a man and one woman become law? Or I guess the question should be: What country or empire stated a two person (man woman) household was legal and a household with more that one woman was not legal? But in todays environment marriage is not something that is required for living together so more that one woman in the household should not be a problem unless the legal question comes up.