In a Dangerous Place: A Dutch Menage a Trois

[Outkast]

Must have moved to the Netherlands because of the chicks...

[Ron Mexico]

I don't know about you, but I'm not really impressed.

[mp007]

Is that Dr. Evil getting the double dawgin'? I may well be jaded, but to be perfectly candid, the only thing worse than being saddled down with one wife is to be saddled down with a couple, or a few of them. A couple of fuck-buddies is ok, but when one tags on a the true appendage, a permanent fixture, till death do ye part, all bets are off. One old-lady is a handfull, but more than that is a death sentence, by definition.

[Ron Mexico]

Is that Dr. Evil getting the double dawgin'?

Hey now, I already beat you on the Dr. Evil analogy.

[SeanPatrick]

Ξ §eän Päŧŗîćķ Ξ

[RYP]

I am just thinking that any time he gets into an argument...he is going to lose...then there is the alimony for two...

[shivers]

I don't see what the big deal is. Polygyny has been the norm in many traditional cultures for centuries. Of course, the wives openly admitting their bisexuality will probably get people's panties in a bunch.

[Renard]

I don't see what the big deal is. Polygyny has been the norm in many traditional cultures for centuries. Of course, the wives openly admitting their bisexuality will probably get people's panties in a bunch.

That's an interesting perspective from a woman. Polygamy, in traditional cultures (as you put it), is overwhelmingly in favour of the man, and is "traditionally" viewed as subjegating the woman(s). Never will you see a woman at the nucleus of a polygamous relationship in traditional cultures, unless it is a modern hippie/pagan one.

Under most Rights and Freedoms charters, it is "read out" as a right or freedom in favour of equality rights, though the Dutch experience suggests that that might change.

[redfax]

Ok.
Point #1: The roman empire fell because it's economic model was based on contnuos expansion, and that forced it to reach a size the emperor could not control, given the state of communication and governance technology of the time.
Point #2: The notion that the fall was due to lax moral standards is a myth which was presumably started and surely perpetuated by the Roman Catholic Church.

[Sri Lanky]

I've had four of what you could call,relationships,and three out of the four women are openly bisexual. The other was probably still in the closet....she's catholic.

I think in India it is fairly common for the woman to be the 'nucleus'.

[Renard]

Ok.
Point #1: The roman empire fell because it's economic model was based on contnuos expansion, and that forced it to reach a size the emperor could not control, given the state of communication and governance technology of the time.
Point #2: The notion that the fall was due to lax moral standards is a myth which was presumably started and surely perpetuated by the Roman Catholic Church.

, said the Know-it-all as Rome burned, his house was raided, his wife and children molested by the Barbarians and God frowned.

;)

[shivers]

That's an interesting perspective from a woman. Polygamy, in traditional cultures (as you put it), is overwhelmingly in favour of the man, and is "traditionally" viewed as subjegating the woman(s). Never will you see a woman at the nucleus of a polygamous relationship in traditional cultures, unless it is a modern hippie/pagan one.

Not necessarily subjugation. The model is about family politics and economics. More women in the family is beneficial for the entire household, so long as the family has enough resources to provide food and shelter for everybody. With more women to handle household work and childcare, women find extra time for labor that brings in actual income. More wives mean more children who grow up to be workers, and bring home more income. Additional marriages within a household form additional beneficial political and economic alliances with other families.

The model certainly allows for misogynistic asswholes to treat their women like dirt, but in most household economies, that's hardly favorable to anybody. That kind of shit succeeds only in cultures where women's labor brings in zero income, food, or other necessary resources.

But you're right, it is a patriarchal model. Whatever may happen behind closed doors, the men ultimately run the show. If a woman decides she doesn't like this model, and wants to be the power nucleus of her own family, then she's probably SOL. Unless she is a hugely successful professional or businesswoman, she is gonna have a real hard time breaking away from her patriarch household.

Since the Netherlands doesn't rely on this model to function as a culture, it is easy to point at this trio, and claim declining morals in the West. But WTF, if it works for others, why shouldn't it work for them?

Just a nitpicky little note: "polygamy" is gender neutral. Polygyny means one husband with multiple wives. Polyandry means one wife with multiple husbands.

[Renard]

Not necessarily subjugation. The model is about family politics and economics. More women in the family is beneficial for the entire household, so long as the family has enough resources to provide food and shelter for everybody. With more women to handle household work and childcare, women find extra time for labor that brings in actual income. More wives mean more children who grow up to be workers, and bring home more income. Additional marriages within a household form additional beneficial political and economic alliances with other families.

I hope you are aware this this is a very hypothetical abstraction. Family models do not operate in a vaccuum.

But you're right, it is a patriarchal model. Whatever may happen behind closed doors, the men ultimately run the show. If a woman decides she doesn't like this model, and wants to be the power nucleus of her own family, then she's probably SOL. Unless she is a hugely successful professional or businesswoman, she is gonna have a real hard time breaking away from her patriarch household.

Ok. You are aware.

Just a nitpicky little note: "polygamy" is gender neutral. Polygyny means one husband with multiple wives. Polyandry means one wife with multiple husbands.

, said the wordsmith, as Rome burned. ;)

(Wow. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that.)

[Sri Lanky]

Yep...

It is so sexually conservative in North America that it does make me want to vomit sometimes.

We have what's called the Fringe Festival in my city every year. It pushes the envelope. It involves plays about things people do or think about but are too repressed to talk about.

One such play was called 'The Fuck Machine'. There was advertisement about the play displayed in public and there ended up being a huge uproar about it. My God,children might see the words 'fuck machine'.

well....how the fuck do you think those children got here in the first place?

[Kurt]

They have to have about the ugliest sex there could be.