Polygamy In Brave New World

In the last decade we have seen a rise in popularity of unconventional relationships especially polyamorous arrangements. Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave new world touches on some of the controversies associated with multiple partner concepts of marriage. As Polyamory becomes more accepted in the mainstream we must question whether or not this is a good thing.

Huxley’s society in Brave new world is based on the concept of stability, and in order to keep this certain cultural traditions have been envisioned differently to promote the nations security. One of the most notable contrast between the novel’s world and our own is the idea of ownership. Each person isn’t tied down to a single partner like the majority of the world today is; instead citizens
To a majority of the population this concept is obscene and offensive. Stories about people forced against their will to marry and fanatic sex cults scare and repulse us. So when this topic is brought up it is no wonder why a majority of people initially dismiss it. Society as a whole is often only told stories about polygamy and not of polyamory. Although both ideologies stem from the concept of having multiple partners they are vastly different. Polygamy focuses almost entirely on the concept of possession and marriage a man has with his multiple spouses, when the gender roles are reversed it is referred to as polyandry. Contrastingly polyamory focuses less on the idea of marriage, and has no heterosexual concept. Unlike polygamy, polyamory motives are not based on the end goal but a consensual relationship between people. The connections between members create a more open bond. (Veaux,
To put it bluntly having sex with more people reduces boredom in a relationship and should decrease the need to see other people outside the arrangement. As more data and on this type of relationships come out we may see that this is stable. Today most information about multiple partner arrangements comes from religious ideologies. Although illegal in all 50 states polygamy is practiced by members of the Latter Day Saints Saints and Muslims communities today. In the United States there is a reported “polygamous population in the U.S. somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 people” (Allen, 2015) most living in Utah. Unfortunately most horror stories come from this ex members of the LDS church and speak about being forced to marry at a young age to older men “I defy any man or woman in [Utah]– where there is not bickering, constant jealousy and heart-aches, even where the semblance of good relations is most rigidly observed.” (Andersen, 2014). Stories are far to easily found about the emotional damage that polygamy has caused to members of the LSD