Creative Destruction

May 14, 2006

What’s The Female Case For Polygamy?

Filed under: Debate, Feminist Issues, Philosophy, Science — Robert @ 3:13 am

Re: polygamy, a commenter over on some lefty-fem blog asks "what’s in it for a woman that she couldn’t get more of with a monogamous marriage?"

I have a stab at an answer on that thread, but would welcome other ideas. Personally, although I am happily married, the idea of multiple wives strikes me as a window into hell. But intellectually, I am very curious as to what the positive case for the institution of polygamy is, from the female point of view.

3 Comments »

  1. You couldn’t, in the US, legally have polygamy that permitted men to have multiple wives but not women to have multiple husbands. So I’m not quite sure what you’re asking here; why women would want legalized multi-marriage, or why a woman would find it positive to be one of many wives with one husband?

    The latter question has been addressed by plenty of women, and I’m sure you can find their arguments all over the Web.

    Comment by mythago — May 14, 2006 @ 4:07 pm | Reply

  2. Why a woman would find it positive to share a husband.

    Undoubtedly there are lots of answers out there, but I’m wondering what our resident genii think.

    Comment by bobhayes — May 14, 2006 @ 4:13 pm | Reply

  3. Why might a woman find it positive to share a husband?

    Hmm. Well, are the women having sex with each other? Cuz that would alter things. However, I’ll assume that the form of marriage you’re talking about would not accomodate lesbian sexuality.

    I know a polyamorous woman who shares her husband with other women, but he’s undeniably her husband, both legally and emotionally, despite the fact that he has other partners. She, too, sometimes h as other partners. I assume this is not what you’re asking about either.

    Here are some reasons I can imagine finding it positive to share a husband, off the top of my head:

    *You don’t like your husband that much. (I don’t mean this to be flippant; there are a lot of parts of the world where companionate marriages are not only not the norm, but also not the ideal.)

    *having a fellow wife means having a larger family, and larger family set-ups are arguably more stable.

    *having a fellow wife or wives could mean a system of shared child-care and household responsibilities, enabling multiple members of the household to work while home care is still provided for children. This, of course, requires that the wives are not set up in different households. It can also, of course, be accomplished in other ways.

    *in many cultures, having a fellow wife or wives gives superior wives power over their younger fellows. Lots of people like power.

    *If you live in a society (like ours) where married people form their own separate households, having a fellow wife or wives is one possible way to incorporate same sex people you want in your household but don’t want to have sex with. To divorce it from our context a bit, in patrilocal societies, two sisters marrying one man enables the sisters to stay together and to have family connections in what is likely to be an unfamiliar environment full of strangers.

    Comment by Mandolin — May 16, 2006 @ 6:52 am | Reply


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