Polygamy vs. Communal Living

[drfuzzy]

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Ok well . . . I doubt my questions about these types of situations will be popular. I was raised religious, very sheltered, with a right-wing view of family drilled into my head. I'm fine with my same-sex friends who have adopted children. I have no problem with mixed race or mixed religion couples, all ideas that would make my parent's heads explode.

          But when I see a "family" that is a man with four wives and 20 children, I ask:  1) good grief, is he a millionaire?  Who is paying for all of this?  2) How in the world does he give proper attention to his kids?  How does each child learn that Daddy loves him/her and thinks they are special?  And probably the biggest question: 3) How can he even claim to love each of the women?  He likes the sex, sure.  He probably would think life was perfect if they were all deaf-mutes, and he didn't have to learn their names.

-- And why do we not see a female with more than one husband?  Surely it would be allowed now.  Women can have jobs, own property, etc.  
I think that these situations intrinsically devalue women.  I think that one of the reasons that you don't see multiple husbands is that the guys wouldn't even consider sharing.  They're in competition, the one who wins gets the sex slave, the loser has to go get his own.

I'm a fan of monogamy.  At the very least, serial monogamy, as a tip of my hat to friends who got divorced and are now in a better place because of it.  I can't imagine true devotion to more than one partner.

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I'm sorry you went through all that, and, of course, you're entitled to your opinion, and I can totally see how you came to it. This thread is about where communal living stops and polygamy begins, and where the legalities happen, though. You're more than welcome to start a thread about the ins and outs and whether or not it should be legal or accepted, if you'd like. I'd just rather this thread not turn into that

Went through all what?  Sorry rebeccarox/Empress.  Somehow I missed that you only wanted to discuss the legal ramifications . . .  I don't think I'll start a thread about polygamy, because, honestly, I think that all marriage should be banned. The monogamous male-female version hasn't worked all that well.