You know, this is a post I’m not so sure I should make.  I have a position on polygamy which is exceptionally liberal but on the other hand, I find the manner in which polygamy is put into practical application to be horrifying.  In trying to wrestle with these countering view points, I’ve decided to post a censored ad I ripped from kijiji.  The censoring is meant to remove details of location and I’m not sure if I’ll post the uncensored ad or not.

Here’s the deal.

I’m spending time away from home for work (as I normally do) and since work has had it’s share of hiccups, I’ve yet to actually log any hours doing anything yet this week.  I’ve been sitting about going just a little crazy cooped up in a rental room doing a lot of nothing for the past couple of days.  I’ll admit that beyond using stumbleupon to find random websites of interest and harassing teenagers on omegle, I peruse the personal ads from a number of localities on kijiji.  What can I say?  It’s good for a chuckle at the very least.

Checking out the “men seeking women” category for a particular region, I came across a very unexpected personals ad.  Among the boring, mundane, interesting and outlandish, I managed to spot the potentially disturbing.  Read below for yourself.

So, here’s my problem.  I don’t think polygamy is a bad thing.  I do however think that polygamy as justified by religious movements is typically, very badly abused.  It seems to me that using God and religious practice to keep multiple wives (why is it almost never multiple husbands?) is a cop out to those who are acting in a selfish manner.  I can’t honestly speak to the motivation of polygamous husbands acting as the head of a large family but from what we have seen of religious polygamy in Canada and the United States, it is far from liberating for women involved.

Polygamists must face facts that polygamy does not exactly have a friendly face.

Personally, I can’t imagine that most people are emotionally equipped to handle the stresses of sharing a life partner with some one else.  I very dearly love my partner and I can’t imagine sharing her with some one that would also claim to love her as I do.  It would be equally difficult I think, to claim in earnest that I could love two or more women at the same time.

So, what kind of thing does this make you think of?  If this were an ad posted for your local area, would you be wondering who the family is?  Would you care?  Would you be worried for the family members or would you give the benefit of the doubt and assume a large family with strong values as stated in the ad?

I’m not entirely sure what to think.  I am of the mind that people should do as they please but the problem with religious polygamous families is that women in particular are often coerced in some fashion.