Women Will Push For Polygyny?

Polygyny (multiple wives) is just one form of polygamy, but you wouldn’t know that from reading some recent write-ups about polygamy, which argue that polygamy (polygyny, really) is financially beneficial to women. After nothing HBO’s Big Love and TLC’s Sister Wives, Douglas French writes…

And just this past week, the Salt Lake Tribune had an obituary for Naomi Naylor, who passed away on November 2nd. Significantly, the obit, referenced “sisterwife Nellie” who preceded Ms. Naylor in death.

My sources in Salt Lake City don’t remember ever seeing an obituary making such a reference.

Then he goes on to write…

Legalizing polygamy, economist David Friedman wrote in his book Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life, “allows some men who before wanted one wife to try to marry two instead - provided that they are willing to offer terms at which potential wives are willing to accept half a husband apiece. So the demand curve for wives shifts out. The supply curve stays the same, the demand curve shifts out, so the price must go up. Women are better off.”

In addition to economics, women (and people in general) are better off when they have the freedom to make more choices about something that is so important in their life. If a woman wants to be one of several wives to a man, then how is it better to tell her she can’t have that freedom to marry? Most people know what is better for themselves than people who don’t know them.

Just as it is impossible to police the prohibition of pot, it seems the same goes for polygamy.

Although it is all too easy for the government to withhold legal recognition for marriages, it is indeed very difficult for a government to stop people from having the relationships they want in the sense of being together. It is a waste ot resources to try.

That blog was referenced by this blog to help make a case that women will support legalizing polygamy.

It's very hard to argue with the economic law of supply and demand. And the flipside of that is the recognition that most men will be worse off, with the obvious exception of those sufficiently rich and powerful enough to both support and attract multiple wives.

Is I’ve pointed out many times before, this makes the assumption that if someone can’t marry the person they really want, they will definitely marry someone else. So that a woman who would, if free to marry into an exsiting man-woman couple will, because of a lack of the freedom to marry, settle for an unmarried man she really didn’t want in the first place. Perhaps some people make such important decisions that way, but I can’t imagine many people do. “John’s married. Guess I’ll have to marry Fred instead.” If John and his wife are agreeable to letting someone else join them, why should we try force that person settle for Fred?

Also, full marriage equality would allow several men and one woman to be married.

Given that the general trend of American society is already in motion towards the economic benefit of women in general and elite men in particular, the fact that legalized polygamy fits squarely upon this progressive trend line would appear to make it all but a done deal, especially if one takes into account the decline of traditionally monogamous Christian culture and its replacement by various pagan cultures that range from openly polygamous African and Arabic immigrant cultures to the practical polygamy of the secular divorce culture in which men financially support multiple wives and families while limiting their sexual involvement to the latest wife.

Keep in mind that from both practical and sociological perspectives, the legal status of a woman as an "ex-wife" rather than a "wife" is largely beside the point so long as the man is still responsible for being the primary provider for the familial unit.

I do not badmouth monogamy, but the claim some make that monogamy is the norm and is right for everyone is laughable, given all of the sex that takes place outside of marriage, including encounters that involve at least one married person, and the high divorce rate. A very small minority of the population has one and only one sex partner over the course of their entire lifetime. If that is what they wanted, then good for them. But to pretend that the freedom to have legal polygamy would upset our social order is folly. If anything, it may improve our social order.

The question ultimately boils down to whether women of the politically active sort would prefer half of Prince Charming's castle to the entirety of a woodcutter's cottage.

And some people marry for other reasons than just money.