QUOTE(the fieryangel @ Mon 19th November 2007, 8:27am)
What I was saying is that it's interesting that saying that the two women should go off together was the female response and that saying that it's admirable that he should be able to keep two women was the male response.
Women traditionally cooperate in groups in the context of teams, or groups, better than men (though men get training through sports for this). Men are more individualistic, as a rule. Women's ability to cooperate does not translate to sharing a man. On the contrary. Also, women compete via infighting and vicious psychological means. Men generally just hit and then get over it. That's a simple way of explaining a pretty complex topic.
Multi-wife marriages often have women bossing around the men, sure. Just that the women I've talked to in polygamous cultures seemed less than thrilled with the idea of sharing a husband. It is, in one country I spent time in, difficult to get a nice, pretty, educated woman to agree to be a 2nd wife. One woman (wife of a colleague) found out that her fiancee was already married at her first engagement, and expected her to be wifey no. 2. She ended it the next day, and got married to someone else two years later. Man, she was not happy about that story. Furious actually. This is kind of private, scandalous information, but I was a guest of honor at their wedding, so that's how I heard about it.
Maybe some women think it is fine. I've just never seen it, that's all (
excluding people who marry for money, etc. which is another line of discussion). What I'm told is that it is more common practice for poorer women, or the very, very richest of the royals. (Where, incidentally, women have seemingly less power than educated upper middle class women).
All gender generalizations (or any generalizations) can be ripped apart anecdotally. As for alternative genders, etc. None of the gay or bi people I know fit in any box at all, so I dont even go there. Other than to say that jealousy and competition and relationship dynamics don't seem that different (to me) in non-hetero relationships.