why is polygamy illegal?

[nageov3t]

I'm a few years behind on this, but I just started watching Big Love this week and it had me thinking... why is polygamy illegal?

assuming all participants are consenting and legal, why should it matter if a woman wanted two husbands or a man wanted two wives?

I'd think that things like underaged, forced marriages would be harder to hide as well if everything were out in the open.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

We really haven't figured out how to sort out legal issues involving property, kids rights etc etc. We already have a lot of trouble with two people relationships.

 

[Vette73]

You can do a religious/fake marriage to as many people as you like.
The Gov only allows rights to be crossed in the way of marriage for one to one for many common sence reasons.

 

[soccerballtux]

Personally I'm glad it is. All the rich guys would get all the beautiful women because they could afford it. This way us guys who don't have oodles of cash still have hope to find an attractive girl.

 

[dullard]

1) It never turns out as nice as it may initially seem. In fact, most of them end up being fairly horrible circumstances (abuse, neglect, etc). Thus, it is a "protect yourself from yourself" law just like motorcycle helmet laws.

2) Our laws are frequently based upon religion and the majority of religious people in America don't support it.

3) Polygamy just sucks in large quantities. Think about it. I'll focus on men marrying multiple women but the same could be said for women marrying multiple men. Suppose the local top 10% of men (whether they are rich / famous / studs / whatever) each get 4 women on average. Suppose the next top 10% of men each get 3 women on average. Suppose the next top 10% of men each get 2 women on average. That leaves us with the bottom 70% of men fighting over the bottom 10% of women. The vast majority of men would have virually no chance of finding a single woman. That includes most of us in this thread. You end up with a bunch of desperate and angry men. The situtation doesn't work out well.

 

[Craig234]

I haven't looked into the history of why it was made illegal. I suspect it was largely a combination of bigotry against those different and believing their own practices were 'right' for everyone.

There's also some conflict between the liberal 'let people do what they want' idealism, and the actual plligamist culture that tends to be abusively misogynistic, if not cult-like.

A woman being told who to marry at a young age because she has been isolated her whole life in this authoritarian environemnt is not the same as two free adults saying 'we want this'.

Big Love may portray some amount of the 'choice' in the protagnists' marriage, but it also makes clear the darker side in Juniper Creek.

I think there's room for discussing 'polygamy freedom' - but it should take care not to empower the harmful groups who happen to practice it for oppressing people.

It does seem we should have that discussion after gay marriage is fixed, because it doesn't seem people are ready to deal with one yet, and especially not both.

Between the two, gay marriage IMO is the more compelling to address immediately, because it doesn't have the complication of deciding what marriage is as two people or more, a 'choice'.

 

[shiner]

Honestly, what sane man would want more than 1 wife?

 

[Skitzer]

The vast majority of men would have virually no chance of finding a single woman. That includes most of us in this thread. You end up with a bunch of desperate and angry men. The situtation doesn't work out well.

Desperate, angry and Horny!!

 

[Craig234]

Desperate, angry and Horny!!

Gay marriage solves another problem!

 

[Atreus21]

I'm a few years behind on this, but I just started watching Big Love this week and it had me thinking... why is polygamy illegal?

assuming all participants are consenting and legal, why should it matter if a woman wanted two husbands or a man wanted two wives?

I'd think that things like underaged, forced marriages would be harder to hide as well if everything were out in the open.

I've been waiting for this.

How exactly would that work? In a case of one man and two women, are the two women also married to each other? Should they rear each other's children?

Let's suppose we legalize polygamy. It's a tiny step then to move from polygamy to group marriages (multiple men married to multiple women.) Why couldn't the whole country get married to itself? Seriously? At that point could you really argue that marriage actually exists?

I mean, do you see where this is going?

 

[her209]

Say a man has two wives. When he dies, are the two women still married?

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Say a man has two wives. When he dies, are the two women still married?

Still having problems with relational logic, eh?

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Honestly, what sane man would want more than 1 wife?

True.

 

[StageLeft]

Honestly, what sane man would want more than 1 wife?

this

 

[her209]

Still having problems with relational logic, eh?

Why don't you enlighten us?

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Why don't you enlighten us?

ATOT style

 

[JS80]

Personally I'm glad it is. All the rich guys would get all the beautiful women because they could afford it. This way us guys who don't have oodles of cash still have hope to find an attractive girl.

They get hot hoes rotating anyway

 

[woolfe9999]

I'm a few years behind on this, but I just started watching Big Love this week and it had me thinking... why is polygamy illegal?

assuming all participants are consenting and legal, why should it matter if a woman wanted two husbands or a man wanted two wives?

I'd think that things like underaged, forced marriages would be harder to hide as well if everything were out in the open.

Big Love is a great show BTW.

The answer is that you're pretty much spot on. There is no good reason for it to be illegal. It is only the aspect of involving underaged people that is a problem. I'm not sure legalizing polygamy will prevent Mormon fundies from hiding their illicit practices of molesting children. IMO, those people should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, if it is between consenting adults, I can't see any reason to oppose it. Certainly anyone supporting gay marriage would be a hypocrit not to.

- wolf

 

[kage69]

Honestly, what sane man would want more than 1 wife?

Damn, can you imagine having more than one mother-in-law?

*shudder*


You don't need more than one wife. You just need an open minded wife.

 

[shiner]

ATOT style

Ugh...why'd he marry those girls? Look at their elbows!

Puke!

 

[shiner]

Damn, can you imagine having more than one mother-in-law?

*shudder*


You don't need more than one wife. You just need an open minded wife.

My ex wife's mom was a true wise and beautiful woman. My current mother in law isn't bad at all.

Probably because she's dead.

 

[Fern]

Honestly, what sane man would want more than 1 wife?

One who's never had one yet?

I'm with the Dullard above who says it's like the helmet laws and in place to keep us guys from doing something really stupid and harming ourselves

Fern

 

[her209]

ATOT style

I was thinking more like this:

 

[PingSpike]

dullard said it. That situation creates suicide bombers. I won't support polygamy until affordable robot wives are available for the masses.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

I was thinking more like this:

except that's be a circular type situation which is would be rare relative to "traditional" polygamy.