Polygamy in 2021

"Men are polygamous in Nature" well, until recent times, this was true!

Although this feels like a covert gender equality motive, it's not. It's the 21ST century and it would be out rightly ridiculous to still peddle the notion that men are the only polygamous ones. Humans are polygamous and that's the hard truth - Now let's talk about it!

Polygamy is an age-long practice that religion puts a barrier up against. Whilst Jesus doesn't want you jumping all over the place, the Qur'an says it's perfectly okay to have you some more if you feel what you have isn't enough and to be honest, this is where the problem or profit stems, not religion, but the feeling of wanting more!

Having multiple partners is a result of the "I want more- Oliver Twist agenda" We'd always want more, hence the idea of polygamous marriages. It didn't matter if we had a holy book to obey or not, we would always want more and it sure takes a great deal of discipline to stick to one partner without having “entanglements”. Polygamy in 2021 isn't exactly what it used to be. In earlier times, polygamy applied to just marriages but today, having multiple partners while in a relationship is polygamy and it didn't have to be restricted to wedding bands or marriage certificates.

As many as sixty thousand people in the United States practice polygamy, including among Americans, Muslims of various ethnicities, and members of the Pan-African society. In February 2020, the Utah legislature passed a so-called Bigamy Bill, decriminalizing the offense by downgrading it from a felony to a misdemeanor. In June, Somerville, Massachusetts, passed an ordinance allowing groups of three or more people who "consider themselves to be a family" to be recognized as domestic partners. The neighboring town of Cambridge followed suit, passing a broader ordinance recognizing multi-partner relationships. The law has proceeded even more rapidly in recognizing that a child can have more than two legal parents.

Today, it is not uncommon to see that polygamy and polygyny—the subset of polygamy that involves one man and multiple women—enjoy legal status or general acceptance in more than seventy countries. Societal norms can only bridle human nature-polygamy- as much as it can, not entirely squeeze it out. We want to be with multiple people before we get married and even after we get married- serial monogamists might see this to be quite disrespectful and selfish but aren’t we all just after our gains and oblivious to the needs of others?

Polygamy in the 21st century is quite feasible and it didn’t have to follow suit the steps of our ancestors who did their best to house the term “polygamy” under the umbrella of marriage. Social media has made personal preferences easy enough, keeping the moo-talks about religion or culture as influencers of this age-long practice out of the picture and bringing in the ‘DM’ button – don’t blame me, it has has to start from somewhere! LOL

“I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it!” … This statement is why the world is leaning towards polygamy. Societal norms cannot accommodate the human nature; instead, it brings to limelight the very core of our personality. The ultimate feeling of getting absolutely anything you want and not staying content or sticking to one partner. Polygamy has become easier to pull though; all you need to do is have an internet connection then proceed to liking other people’s pictures and sending DMs knowing fully well that you have a partner and to be honest, changes about so little to nothing positively about your relationships, but instead, it adds a long list of people to your relationship web and destroys the whole idea of exclusivity; the cons of polygamy.

However, in cases where it’s an open relationship where you and your partner have given each other the carte blanche, the idea of polygamy is plausible and pardonable but in cases where it’s not an open relationship, It’s difficult to feel loved knowing that your partner cheats on you, giving to a few others what should be exclusively yours. The deceit is heart-wrenching; worse if you had absolutely no idea about what’s going on! Polygamy can be difficult to peddle but funnily enough, it is no longer confined to a “small home” by the countryside with multiple partners and their kids playing hide-and-seek around the lawn, it’s the “Quavo and Saweetie” kind of story with a pinch of “Jada and August’s” entanglement series and a vacation in Rome or Dubai! (to be honest, it gets even more complicated as you get into it)

Polygamy costs you time, efforts, resources, and most importantly, costs you the trust and loyalty of your partner and relationships, however, heavy is the head that wears the crown. If you feel you can bear the brunt and the crown fits perfectly, wear it!!!