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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   24433 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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condoms and a harem

Isn't having children with the harem women part of having a harem?

In general, sure, but that wasn't my impression of how the word was being used, which was more like "brothel." I suppose in the hypothetical where it's my exclusive use harem, but I still don't have to interact with them, there's no STD concern. And while we're at it, let's stipulate that they each have a dozen IUDs.

I would still not want them, given the alternative of something monogamous. They sound exhausting. I like the feeling of winning on my own merits that comes with sleeping with someone I "earned" rather than bought.

Given all of the stipulations here, we've moved so far from "men want to cheat/have lots of casual partners" that I think it's pretty irrelevant. And, so implausible as to be even more irrelevant, in the same way as "if science could perfectly grow new bodies and move over minds, and adjust for the lack of growing up as that gender, and retcon others' memories, then surely you'd agree trans women are women."

Uh, do you know what a concubine was? That's not a trick question by the way- lots of people actually literally don't know.

Concubinage varied from culture to culture but typically referred to a relationship very similar to marriage, but in which the woman got a worse deal often due to having a lower social status. Most cultures, unless they suppress this tendency, will develop some form of this over time- cohabitation and sugar babies in the modern US fills the same niche- and it was a committed relationship. And throughout history you tend to see kings having multiple concubines(mistresses being the same thing in practice), but you don't see kings brothel hopping that often.

Uh, do you know what a concubine was?

Well, now I do. I suppose if I'd thought about it harder, I could have defined harem/concubine/brothel correctly, but mea culpa.

I still don't want one.

Most cultures, unless they suppress this tendency, will develop some form of this over time

Well said, and a decent metaphor for fighting reality on a number of fronts I suspect.

By the way- harem doesn’t mean what you think it does either. It refers to the woman’s part of a large household- in other words, it’s a reference to gender segregation and not to the sexual satisfaction of a single man. Historical harems housed a large number of women which were not involved sexually with the man who owned the house.

Weren't harems typically exclusive to a man?

The relationship between the man and his concubine in his harem is different than a man seeing a prostitute in a brothel.

Children with concubines in a harem seems desired historically some men haveing hundreds of children with hundreds of concubines.

If your successful enough to have a harem with many concubines, you have earned it, even if you've bought some at the slave market. Presumably this level of success is also helpful in supporting the hundreds of children you produce with the concubines. The concubines may be motivated to have your children as it raises their status as well.

Weren't harems typically exclusive to a man?

Yeah. As mentioned in another thread, I got my whorecabulary a bit mixed up.

If I could do it over, I'd s/harem/bunch 'o fuckbuddies/

I doubt any men who own a harem are going to agree that theirs is not a true harem because they do not aim to have children.

If you want my opinion, then if you want lots of sex, have sex; if you want lots of children, have children. In the era of IVF, there is little need to mix the two once you've hit the "harem" scale. Musk got the right idea with his sperm bank sugar mamas.

if you want lots of sex, have sex; if you want lots of children, have children. In the era of IVF, there is little need to mix the two

I find the seperation creepier than having lots of children with concubines in a harem.

The seperation of sex and reproduction I think is in part responsible for some of the current year dysfunction.

How far do you go with this? Condoms and the pill are bad?

Just the tip.

Yes, oral contraceptives were introduced in 1960 combined with the following 'sexual liberation' has produced an increase in any number of negative outcomes.

Condoms have a longer history, I appreciate their use as a tool of war to protect troops from venereal disease.

Ok, hard mode- do you condemn sodomy?

Do you mean immorality in general, beatiality, homosexual anal sex, or something else?

I'd likely condemn sodomy.

I mean sticking it in the wrong hole, maybe rounding out to all same-sex acts but definitely not excluding eg homosexual blowjobs.

Hopefully a cure will be discovered, or at least effective treatment options.

Responsible for much of the current year difference from The Way It Was Always Done, perhaps. I see no reason to believe the dysfunction comes from some law of nature, rather than us being unadapted, for now, to the differences.

It's not the way it was always done. Many pre-Christian societies managed fertility and reproduction differently.

You may now perceive pre-sexual revolution way of doing things as the way it was always done but this was new social technology at a point in the past.

Abandoning this and hoping that the current year dysfunction resolves as we 'adapt' seems more like wishful thinking than a strategy.

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