Polygamy

"Politics of modern polygamy in modern Russia" Mar 15, 2006
"Why monogamy favours men" Mar 15,2006

Polygamy is more pertinent to the Muslim population as it is part of their religious practice. Recent controversian changes to laws that have brought the issue of polygamy to the front would be the proposed amendment to the Syariah Law in Malaysia to make it easier for men to take more than one wife(polygamy). Moreover, Mr Nikolai Kurianovich, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, has just proposed a radical solution to the decline of the Russian population, which is also polygamy. This would also fit in with the Muslim tradition, as claimed by him. In my opinion, I think that polygamy should not be implemented, as the disadvantages outweigh the benefits.

First and foremost, polygamy undermines woman's rights. For centuries, men have been allowed to practise polygamy and to take several wives at once. This was especially widespread in ancient China, especially in the palace. The disadvantages of this would be that polygamy actually inflicts some form of emotional harm on the woman. She is forced to share her husband with other women and has to jostle for his affection with other women. In a way, it is like a controlled form of sexual promiscuity as well. If the husband is allowed to marry many wives, he would not value each wife as much and this is unfair for the woman as she has pledged her single-hearted devotion for life. Moreover, the other unfair aspect would be usually, only polygamy and not polyandry would be allowed. Women would be perceived to be the lesser gender as males would be allowed to take more than one wife but women not allowed to marry more than one husband. Women will not be given equal rights if polygamy is legalized.

Secondly, polygamy unleashes competitive forces. A more hypothetical argument would be that if men were allowed to practise polygamy, a proportion of males would take more than one wife and the rest of the marriages would be monogamous. The number of eligible women would actually be reduced and now there is an "excess supply of men". Many males would remain single and in fact, the birth rate might actually decrease instead of increase because of the decreased number of marriages due to the lack of eligible women. An example would be China. Because of their one-child policy, there is now an overwhelming large majority of males over females. Homosexuality is on the rise and many males are unable to get married at all because of the relatively smaller women population.

It follows from above that polygamy's competitive forces actually creates problems, even in animals. Polygamy reduces us to the similar status as that of animals. Historically, animals practise polygamy to ensure survival. Each male would have access to many females and this will facilitate the spreading of the species since the reproduction rate will be higher. However, males will constantly jostle and engage in fights so as to gain exclusive access to harems of females. An example would be the bull elephant seals. Natural selection favoured the larger bull elephant seal which would be able to outfight other males. However although this larger size gave males this advantage, it also caused them to become less mobile and more vulnerable to sharks and other predators. As such, polygamy would actually bring more harm than good because of the more intense competition for a smaller supply of females.

In view of all this, i feel that polygamy should not be implemented. We have advanced so much since historical times. Let us not lapse into our previous mistakes of viewing women in inferior ways and let men practise polygamy so has to further perpetuate thinking. Both women and men should have equal rights as both genders are able to make contributions to the society.