Polygamy Bursting Out All Over/Maggie Gallagher

The trusty Margaret Nell (who edits iMAPP Marriage News weekly), points out "Bunch of blogs on polygamy at the Gruntled Center:
http://gruntledcenter.blogspot.com/2005/12/why-exactly-is-polygamy-illegal.html

Hat tip to family scholars.org and of course Stanely Kurtz.

The latest? "The New Monomgamy" which turns out to be the old open marriage. (see below)

As someone who remembers the Seventies' these stories have a distinctly retro feel.

Maggie


The New Monogamy
Until death do us part—except every other Friday.
NY Magazine
http://newyorkmetro.com/lifestyle/sex/annual/2005/15063/

By Em & Lo

Claire is a pretty, 31-year-old Park Sloper who studies furniture design. Her husband, Alex, is a 32-year-old Web-design consultant with a fondness for floral shirts. He’s the center of attention at a party; she’s the one off to the side, seemingly aloof but really just shy. That’s why she was shocked when, more than a year into their relationship, she was the one who found herself attracted to someone else.

"I was totally confused, because I'd assumed that once I found 'the one,' I would be done with all that," says Claire. "Going through all this was hard for us as a couple." But when her husband subsequently got a crush of his own, she was more prepared. "Now that it was his turn, I was in a position to understand," explains Claire. "So I told him, if he wanted to kiss her, that was okay-but I wanted to know about it, and I wanted that to be as far as things went without him talking to me first."

For much of human history, monogamy (or, at least, presumed monogamy) has been the default setting for long-term love. Hack the system, goes the theory, refuse to forsake all others, open the door even a crack—and the whole relationship will crash. Any dissenters have been pathologized as delusional idealists or worse. But now a new generation of couples is employing a kind of homeopathic hypothesis: that a tiny injection of adventure will ward off the urge to stray further—as long as it's all on the table and up for discussion. (And just as with homeopathy, a healthy percentage of the population considers this premise bunk.). . ."
posted by maggie at 11:49 AM | link

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