{"id":646,"date":"2006-03-17T17:22:09","date_gmt":"2006-03-17T17:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/03\/17\/polygamy_in_ame\/"},"modified":"2013-05-07T18:41:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T23:41:39","slug":"polygamy_in_ame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/03\/polygamy_in_ame\/","title":{"rendered":"Polygamy in American life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I came across some interesting articles on polygamy on the occasion of\u00a0 the controversial HBO series \"Big Life\" <\/a>(which concerns a polygamous marriage in Utah).\u00a0 One journalist who normally covers economics has written a limited defense of polygamy (\"I do, I do, I do, I do: The economic case for polygamy\"<\/a>) in Slate.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Among other things, he argues that, as counterintuitive as it may be, polygamy can increase some women\u2019s bargaining strength with prospective spouses due to polygamy\u2019s reduction of the total number of potential wives.\u00a0 If some husbands take multiple wives, that leaves fewer choices for the remaining men and, the logic goes, more leverage in the hands of other women when negotiating relationship responsibilities.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a fan of polygamy in most circumstances or societies today, but I do find some of his economic arguments for the potential advantages of for women intriguing, especially his highly original comparison to prison populations!.<\/p>\n

\n

A little over one in 100 American men are in prison\u2014but there are several states where one in five young black men are behind bars<\/em>\u00a0 [A shameful and sobering indication of America\u2019s continuing race problems \u2013Svend ]. Since most women marry men of a similar age, and of the same race and in the same state, there are some groups of women who face a dramatic shortfall of marriage partners.<\/em><\/p>\n

Economist Kerwin Charles has recently studied the plight of these women. Their problem is not merely that some who would want to marry won\u2019t be able to. It\u2019s that the available men\u2014those not in prison\u2014suddenly have more bargaining power. Goodbye to doing the dishes and paying the rent; hello to mistresses and wham, bam, thank you ma\u2019am. The women whose potential partners have had their ranks thinned by prison are less likely to marry, and when they do marry, are likely to marry a man less educated than they are. Meanwhile, the remaining men, finding a surfeit of marriage partners, suddenly seem in no hurry to marry. And why would they?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Whether those benefits really manifest in the real world or end up being outweighed by other patriarchal practices and attitudes that tend to accompany polygamy in practice, I don\u2019t know, though.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Must confess, though, that I don\u2019t believe it should be illegal, and not just for the obvious religious reasons (e.g., the fact that it is explicitly allowed in certain circumstances in the Quran, or that its appears frequently in the lives of the great prophets of Islamic, Jewish and Christian tradition).<\/p>\n

Given this institution\u2019s propensity for abuse\u2013whether polygamy encourages this phenomenon or such men are just more likely to be polygamous, a lot of polygamist men do seem to really like \u2019em awfully young\u2013I think it should be carefully monitored and regulated, but so long as those involved are consenting adults, I see no ethical argument for a ban.<\/p>\n

Moreover, contemporary anti-polygamy bans are surreally out of step with contemporary American legal and social values.\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s something downright bizarre about these restrictions in the era of popular indifference the Monica Lewinsky scandal.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re clearly an unconstitutional instance of unequal treatment and an invasion of privacy. Jonathan Turley points out in USA Today (\"Polygamy laws expose our own hypocrisy\"<\/a>) how inconsistent the law is regarding polygamy:<\/p>\n

\n

Individuals have a recognized constitutional right to engage in any form of consensual sexual relationship with any number of partners. Thus, a person can live with multiple partners and even sire children from different partners so long as they do not marry. However, when that same person accepts a legal commitment for those partners \"as a spouse,\" we jail them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Likewise, someone such as singer Britney Spears can have multiple husbands so long as they are consecutive, not concurrent. Thus, Spears can marry and divorce men in quick succession and become the maven of tabloid covers. Yet if she marries two of the men for life, she will become the matron of a state prison.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another observer Steve Chapman, writes in Slate (\"Two\u2019s Company; Three\u2019s a Marriage: In Praise of Polygamy\"<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

The law, in short, doesn\u2019t prevent a man from being licentious, promiscuous, irresponsible, and thoroughly goatish. Had Green just shacked up with a harem of willing single women, no one would have cared. But when he lives as a dutiful husband to five women in a collection of trailer homes in the Utah desert, he somehow presents a dire threat to our social foundation. This brings to mind heterosexuals accusing homosexuals of undermining marriage, even as heterosexuals have left it in tatters. The argument for allowing polygamy has much in common with the argument for letting gays enter into matrimony. If consenting adults who prefer polygamy can do everything else a husband and wife can do\u2014have sex, live together, buy property, and bring up children jointly\u2014why should they be prohibited from legally committing themselves to the solemn duties that attach to marriage? How is society worse off if these informal relationships are formalized and pushed toward permanence? <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Again, I\u2019m not a fan of polygamy today and it\u2019s sure not for me, but I am a firm believer in freedom and in equal treatment before the law.\u00a0 What\u2019s good for the monogamist ought to be equally good for the bigamist.<\/p>\n

The bans have no place in a free society, especially an increasingly secular one.\u00a0 They\u2019re more a manifestation of prejudice and paternalism than concern for women, I believe.<\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0 Baraka has a thoughtful post on the show and whole question of polygyny (Truth & Beauty: \"Polygyny\/Polygamy<\/a>\". <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came across some interesting articles on polygamy on the occasion of\u00a0 the controversial HBO series “Big Life” (which concerns a polygamous marriage in Utah).\u00a0 One journalist who normally covers economics has written a limited defense of polygamy (“I do, I do, I do, I do: The economic case for polygamy”) in Slate.\u00a0 Among other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women-in-islam"],"yoast_head":"\nPolygamy in American life - Akram's Razor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I came across some interesting articles on polygamy on the occasion of  the controversial HBO series "Big Life" (which concerns a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/03\/polygamy_in_ame\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Polygamy in American life - 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