Polygamy

I've just finished watching the amazing documentary 'four wives one man' following a polygamous family living in Iran. At times it was funny, but mostly it was hearbreaking. It also raises questions about the morality of polygamous marriages.

What was sad, was not that he had more than one wife, but how he treated his ladies. They had no respect, and were valued so little. His fourth wife had already tried to set herself on fire twice (though we don't know whether this was before she married him), and said she would kill herself if he married again. The end of the film came when he brought home wife number 5 - who was also extremely young.

He admitted hitting his wifes, and the wives themselves told of a catalogue of abuse. He would play them off against eachother, and they bickered and argued. The only uplifting part of the film was his mother, who was extremely outspoken. Her first words were 'my son likes pussy' - what a trooper she is!!

Is it possible to be happy in such a marriage? I mean, the unhappiness those women experienced is not just becuase of polygamy, but because they married a horrible man. I can't see how they can be happy, because I think the essence of a marriage is partnership - which is something they didn't have.

5 men sounds in theory fabulous, but in reality - one is more than enough ;-)

BBC discusses homosexuality in the Bible

Very interesting article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3205727.stm

Christian room sharing ettiquite

In ye olde Christian days, males and females would not share rooms until they were married. whatever people think about sex before marriage (and for now that post has been and gone), I'm left wondering what the correct view is on sharing a room. Virtually all (if not exculsivly all) christian couples I know will share a hotel room on holidays, weekends away, weddings etc.

So, thats acceptable, but if you go away in a mixed group, and sharing a room with someone of the same gender becomes acceptable, people tend to do that instead. Does that mean its only acceptable to share a room with a boyf if there is no other option other than spending a fortune on 2 rooms? Or is that the done thing because people are worried others will judge them for room sharing when its not strictly necessary?

Meh, someone should write a manual on what to do about this stuff.

Incidentally, this is purely hypothetical at the moment. Me and the man have not stayed away in any hotels, or have any booked. Also, am quite happy sharing a room with him wherever. The exception of course might be with a group of people who dissaprove, who force us to share seperate rooms. Time will tell I guess.

Paranoia

There's wanting to keep this an anony-blog, and there's stupid paranoia. I have the latter. I managed to forget the addres of this blog, my username, my password, and the email address I used to create it. Great. The result of which was me being blocked out for several weeks.

Well I'm glad to say I'm back in again. And ready to post!

Gender and pregnant blokes

A few days ago, the worlds 'first pregnant man' gave birth to a healthy little baby. Of course, this wasn't a marvel of modern times and medicine, but bcause the man in question was a female-male transexual. Whilst he has been living as a man for a long period of time, when they operated on him, he opted to keep his female reproductive organs. Now with the help of a sperm donor he became pregnant.

This raises some strange issues. As I was going round Tesco's earlier, buying chicken (if you must know) I overheard two women talking about this - and whether he was a woman or a man. They came to the conclusion that female reproductive organs = female.

I'm not sure its quite as simple as that - eg for intersex people, but if you have a baby, and you are genertically a female, in my mind you ARE female. Now I don't mind calling Thomas Beatie a man, if it makes him feel more in touch with himself, but its very much in the same way as when you say to a fat person that they are not fat. You're not speaking the truth, but you are speaking to reduce distress.

Most transexuals I don't have a problem with labelling them with thier post operative gender, by Thomas Beatie seems to be taking the best from both genders. He wants to be a 'man' yet does something so intrinsically female.

Mostly rude signs that are making me laugh today

On Blasphemy

Returning to the topic of swearing that I discussed yesterday, I realised I forgot to discuss Blasphemy.

Shock, horror, I actually agree with most of my contemporaries here, that blaspheming is bad!

Again, it depends on the meaning behind it, but as a Christian, I do reel slightly (internally, not visably) when someone takes my God's name in vain.

Though when I was young I did get confused as to why I could not say 'oh god' as my friends did in conversation, yet mentioning God in church, or in songs was absolutley fine. I guess that was my child's brain. Though it reminds me now, and when I eventually do have children I shall point it out, that it is the meaning behind what you say that is important, not just the words you use.