Nydia Ywalmoriel
03-22-2009, 02:50 PM
The BBC today had an interesting, if fluff-heavy, little article today about polygamy in southern Utah and a growing polygamy legalization movement being organized there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7953270.stm
While most people hearing the words 'Mormon' and 'polygamy' in the same sentence currently tend to think of the Warren Jeffs/FLDS cult controversy, there are an estimated 80-100,000 people in the US living in plural marriages, mostly in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado, including a few towns (such as Colorado City in northern Arizona) where they predominate in the population (including in local law enforcement) and that aspect of their lives, although technically illegal, is turned a blind eye to.
I brought the post up because I think it's interesting given the country's current convulsions over gay marriage, and because fifteen years ago, when I was heavily involved in LGBT activism and on the steering committee for the 1993 March on Washington, one of the things we were hashing out in all that 'processing' that goes on in those consensus meetings was whether or not we should include a statement in our platform about multiple partner marriage (it was eventually rejected over concerns that it would turn off people who might otherwise support gay marriage).
As for myself, while I strongly favor decriminalization of plural marriage (given statistics released this week that 40% of children born in the US are now born out of wedlock, one can hardly raise much of a 'moral outrage' based objection), and for that matter, I wouldn't object to seeing multiple partner marriages legalized, I'm ambivalent about the issue for what I can only call sociological issues. In an idealized world, all of the participants
in such marriages would be consenting adults, the girls in those communities wouldn't be being conditioned to accept being married off as 13 year olds, and the boys wouldn't be ostracised and cast out of the communities at adolescence - but then again, in an ideal world, child and partner abuse wouldn't happen in traditional two person penis/vagina marriages, either...
Also, while I'm sure it works well for specific individuals, I'm a bit concerned about the model itself - due to the fact that societies that practice sanctioned polygamy tend to be less stable due to lack of access of a significant percentage of young men to mates. Islamic society copes with this in part by keeping men and women in different spheres and in those countries one finds a rich social life that is for men only, under ideal circumstances both providing social compensation to the mateless and networking opportunities as far as finding a wife goes - with varying degrees of success.
The usual naive outrage that we express in the US with regard to polygamy centers around the idea that it is somehow 'unfair' to the women involved - while the available evidence suggests that this isn't necessarily the case. In societies where polygamy is practiced, the stipulation universally exists that one can only take additional wives if one can care and provide for them - and there are often strict legal consequences for failing to do so. While I view polygamy as, at worst, exacerbating inequalities in a society and promoting the commodification of women, for the people involved in these marriages they're often a source of great stability and satisfaction - as one of the respondants to the BBC interview noted: "My relationship with my husband is only going to be great if his relationship with his other wives is great" - and on a personal note, I've occasionally thought that I'd find this sort of arrangement potentially ideal in that I wouldn't be saddled with the entire physical and emotional upkeep of my mate (as I'm the sort of person who needs a lot of private, or 'down' time, which is one reason I've opted out of childrearing as well).
So, this intro has run on too long as usual, but how do folks feel about the issue of legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, polygamy?
Regards,
Nydia
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7953270.stm
While most people hearing the words 'Mormon' and 'polygamy' in the same sentence currently tend to think of the Warren Jeffs/FLDS cult controversy, there are an estimated 80-100,000 people in the US living in plural marriages, mostly in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado, including a few towns (such as Colorado City in northern Arizona) where they predominate in the population (including in local law enforcement) and that aspect of their lives, although technically illegal, is turned a blind eye to.
I brought the post up because I think it's interesting given the country's current convulsions over gay marriage, and because fifteen years ago, when I was heavily involved in LGBT activism and on the steering committee for the 1993 March on Washington, one of the things we were hashing out in all that 'processing' that goes on in those consensus meetings was whether or not we should include a statement in our platform about multiple partner marriage (it was eventually rejected over concerns that it would turn off people who might otherwise support gay marriage).
As for myself, while I strongly favor decriminalization of plural marriage (given statistics released this week that 40% of children born in the US are now born out of wedlock, one can hardly raise much of a 'moral outrage' based objection), and for that matter, I wouldn't object to seeing multiple partner marriages legalized, I'm ambivalent about the issue for what I can only call sociological issues. In an idealized world, all of the participants
in such marriages would be consenting adults, the girls in those communities wouldn't be being conditioned to accept being married off as 13 year olds, and the boys wouldn't be ostracised and cast out of the communities at adolescence - but then again, in an ideal world, child and partner abuse wouldn't happen in traditional two person penis/vagina marriages, either...
Also, while I'm sure it works well for specific individuals, I'm a bit concerned about the model itself - due to the fact that societies that practice sanctioned polygamy tend to be less stable due to lack of access of a significant percentage of young men to mates. Islamic society copes with this in part by keeping men and women in different spheres and in those countries one finds a rich social life that is for men only, under ideal circumstances both providing social compensation to the mateless and networking opportunities as far as finding a wife goes - with varying degrees of success.
The usual naive outrage that we express in the US with regard to polygamy centers around the idea that it is somehow 'unfair' to the women involved - while the available evidence suggests that this isn't necessarily the case. In societies where polygamy is practiced, the stipulation universally exists that one can only take additional wives if one can care and provide for them - and there are often strict legal consequences for failing to do so. While I view polygamy as, at worst, exacerbating inequalities in a society and promoting the commodification of women, for the people involved in these marriages they're often a source of great stability and satisfaction - as one of the respondants to the BBC interview noted: "My relationship with my husband is only going to be great if his relationship with his other wives is great" - and on a personal note, I've occasionally thought that I'd find this sort of arrangement potentially ideal in that I wouldn't be saddled with the entire physical and emotional upkeep of my mate (as I'm the sort of person who needs a lot of private, or 'down' time, which is one reason I've opted out of childrearing as well).
So, this intro has run on too long as usual, but how do folks feel about the issue of legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, polygamy?
Regards,
Nydia