Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Today's soundtrack: No Doubt "It's My Life" ::
Say, I haven't spoken about a serious issue in some time, so I figure I'm about due. Because you know, that's what we do here at William's Bloody Hell; talk about the real issues in the world today. You know, when I'm done talking about the X-men, movies and candy.
A hot button topic that I've been hearing about quite a lot in the media these days is polygamy, in other words, when one person is married to multiple spouses. Apparently there's been a few instances of governments cracking down on this sort of thing (both in the United States and in Canada) in recent months. The most infamous of polygamists is of course the Mormons. They take god's decree of "be fruitful and multiply" to heart so that one man takes on sometimes more than a dozen wives and has several children with each. But there is also the occasional independent individual who has two to four spouses, irregardless of religion.
My own personal stance on polygamy is: who cares? I'm not shrugging off the issue, I'm saying, who cares if one guy has one wife or fourteen? Why would this bother me? As long as every person involved in the marriage is 1. Over the age of legal consent 2. All spouses are aware of all the other ones before hand, then who are we to say they can't do it?
First off, you should already know that I don't buy into the "marriage is defined as one man and one woman" crap. I don't care if two women or two men want to get married. It's every person's right to seek happiness, and if they're not hurting anyone else to get it, why refuse them that right? Well the same thing applies here, to me anyway. If one woman wants to marry three men, and all the men involved are fine with it, why is this a problem? If four women and six guys all want to marry each other in some weird cult ceremony, why not? Just because you personally wouldn't have more than one spouse and don't agree with the idea is no reason for it to be against the law.
I do however, take issue with what I've seen some of those Mormons do for the sake of their belief in polygamy. I don't agree when they make a thirteen year old girl become the wife of a fifty year old man. I also don't agree with all of the welfare fraud they perform in order to support their gargantuan families. 1 man + 20 wives = 70 children, we understand that, but did you, Mister Multiplication? One thing I've always said is that if you want to have a family, it'd be best if you have a secure means of supporting that family BEFORE getting started. Okay, so all powerful god said that he wants you to have seventy children, but that doesn't mean you get right down to work before coming up with a plan to take care of them! And I'm sorry, but scamming the government doesn't count as a viable plan! I don't care if you do have that many kids, more power to you, but I don't want to have to pay for them.
Also, I don't agree with polygamy when it is done in secret. For example, a man travels for work and has a family on the east coast, a family on the west coast, and one in the south and none of them has any idea about the others. This, is wrong. It is lying and deception and fraudulent to that man's families who were led to believe they were the only ones in his life. If Steve is married to Rebecca, and then Steve marries Susan without letting her know he is already married to Rebecca, no, no, no. BUT if Steve tells Susan that he is already married to Rebecca and they are all okay with it, then I have no problem.
I think many people don't like polygamy because, well, of sex. You'd be surprised how many folks these days still consider sex to be dirty and taboo, even though they themselves do it. Many people get the idea that the only reason someone would marry more than one person is for sexual purposes, and this is probably because of the infamous Mormons. This isn't always the case with the certain "every day" individuals on a more manageable scale. Some people can actually and literally fall in love with more than one person. Some people don't mind sharing their spouse with another. Many of the prudish sort just automatically believe that if a man is married to three women that they are depraved human beings who are sex crazed and have massive orgies or something. Is it so hard to believe that a regular, normal person could get married to multiple partners and still have what most would consider a normal sex life? Quite honestly, it would seem to me to be safer for these people to have polygamist marriages. Think about it. If all of the sex in these marriages is obtained within the marriage, then it still limits the spread of venereal disease and so forth. Would you rather someone be limited to one spouse, but cheat? Would infidelity be preferable to polygamy? Polygamy is a crime, but infidelity is not, so apparently, yes. That just seems wrong.
In short, I don't think polygamy should be against the law. If all the persons involved in the marriage are fine with their situation, then why should it be an issue who's married to whom and whomelse? If a woman wants five husbands, why should any government care? Just because YOUR religion doesn't allow for it, doesn't mean THEY subscribe to the same religion! Quit trying to force your views of what a marriage SHOULD be on others. You don't have to agree with me, but isn't that the beauty of it all?
William (building a harem)
