General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)People who compare same-sex marriage and polygamy need to fuck off [View all]
Sadly, this idiotic talking point is being raised by clickbaiters, wingnuts, and other ignoramuses trying to hijack or delegitimize an historic victory for civil rights. Please give it rest.
1. The issue has been raised consistently by rightwing bigoted assholes who oppose marriage equality. It is an argument that has been weaponized against the movement for equality.
2. The countries in black are those where polygamy is allowed--countries like Uganda, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia. The ones in blue are where it is banned.
You will note that the ones that permit polygamy are also the most heinously homophobic, whereas the ones in blue are the ones that have embraced or are on the way to embracing legal equality for their GLBT citizens.
Unsurprisingly, the countries that permit polygamy are also the worst ones for gender equality. It is perverse to hijack the cause of equality by comparing it to something that's inherently anti-equality.
Polygamy is anti-equality and rooted in backwards patriarchal practices.
3. Polygamy is really fucking awful for women and children.
http://news.ubc.ca/2012/01/23/monogamy-reduces-major-social-problems-of-polygamist-cultures/
That is a key finding of a new University of British Columbia-led study that explores the global rise of monogamous marriage as a dominant cultural institution. The study suggests that institutionalized monogamous marriage is rapidly replacing polygamy because it has lower levels of inherent social problems.
Our goal was to understand why monogamous marriage has become standard in most developed nations in recent centuries, when most recorded cultures have practiced polygyny, says UBC Prof. Joseph Henrich, a cultural anthropologist, referring to the form of polygamy that permits multiple wives, which continues to be practiced in some parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America.
The emergence of monogamous marriage is also puzzling for some as the very people who most benefit from polygyny wealthy, powerful men were best positioned to reject it, says Henrich, lead author of the study that is published today in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Our findings suggest that that institutionalized monogamous marriage provides greater net benefits for society at large by reducing social problems that are inherent in polygynous societies.
Considered the most comprehensive study of polygamy and the institution of marriage, the study finds significantly higher levels rape, kidnapping, murder, assault, robbery and fraud in polygynous cultures. According to Henrich and his research team, which included Profs. Robert Boyd (UCLA) and Peter Richerson (UC Davis), these crimes are caused primarily by pools of unmarried men, which result when other men take multiple wives.
The scarcity of marriageable women in polygamous cultures increases competition among men for the remaining unmarried women, says Henrich, adding that polygamy was outlawed in 1963 in Nepal, 1955 in India (partially), 1953 in China and 1880 in Japan. The greater competition increases the likelihood men in polygamous communities will resort to criminal behavior to gain resources and women, he says.
According to Henrich, monogamys main cultural evolutionary advantage over polygyny is the more egalitarian distribution of women, which reduces male competition and social problems. By shifting male efforts from seeking wives to paternal investment, institutionalized monogamy increases long-term planning, economic productivity, savings and child investment, the study finds. Monogamys institutionalization has been assisted by its incorporation by religions, such as Christianity.
Monogamous marriage also results in significant improvements in child welfare, including lower rates of child neglect, abuse, accidental death, homicide and intra-household conflict, the study finds. These benefits result from greater levels of parental investment, smaller households and increased direct blood relatedness in monogamous family households, says Henrich, who served as an expert witness for British Columbias Supreme Court case involving the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C.
Monogamous marriage has largely preceded democracy and voting rights for women in the nations where it has been institutionalized, says Henrich, the Canadian Research Chair in Culture, Cognition and Evolution in UBCs Depts. of Psychology and Economics. By decreasing competition for younger and younger brides, monogamous marriage increases the age of first marriage for females, decreases the spousal age gap and elevates female influence in household decisions which decreases total fertility and increases gender equality.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22794315
4. The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples may not be denied the benefits available to heterosexual couples as that is improper discrimination based on who they are. And, it does nothing to change the legal meaning of heterosexual marriages. It just means same-sex couples get the same benefits. Granting poly marriages full legal effect means blowing up the current legal definition of marriage and rewriting our entire legal code regarding divorce, child support, child custody/decisionmaking, tax, inheritance, property, employee benefits, etc. It would also change the fundamental assumption underlying marriages as they currently exist--that two people commit to one another and place the other before all others.
That would be an attack on the institution of marriage itself, which is why the alarmist bigots make the comparison in the first place.