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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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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/