Do you like Polygamies in Novels?

If the other party is willing to accept it then sure I have no problem with up to 4 wives max (more than that I would find it ridiculous) they have to have a harmonious relationship if its constant backstabbing then its not for me

 

I'm just more use to seeing the Japanese harem, where it's more or less used for comedic proposes than an actually romance.

 

No

 

Nothing is wrong with harem or polygamy so yes
If the reader tired of harem It's because they read the wrong novel, that's all
BTW harem sh*t is when mc surrounded by many girl, the girls fall in love with mc, there is harem tag in novel category and in the end mc only choose 1..... Yeah that is trash for me. The reader got betrayed with the expectation

 

Ok im curious so i have a question for those of you who are saying that polygamy and harems are a viable and possibly superior alternative to modern "forced monogamy" would you be part of a harem? Honestly would you be willing to share an ordinary wife/husband or girlfriend/boyfriend with a bunch of other men or women??? I can assure you my answer is HELL M********KIN NO!!! But some of you seem to think it makes sense and i have an automatic suspicion of hypocrisy which could totally be wrong so im asking would you be part of a harem?

 

I have yet to come across a single harem that I like or can take seriously. The women fall in "love" with the MC at the drop of hat, exist for no other reason than be in the harem and worst of all, waste my time with the same repetitive bullshit.

I've noticed that the only people who support this notion are heterosexual males. I think that they actually believe that polygamy came about because multiple women were actually romantically interested in the King/aristocrat they were shackled to.

 

There is also the fact that most real life examples of harems, polygamy, and concubines and wutnot have historically coincided with rampant misogyny, sexism, bigotry, and a general lack of human rights.

 

I mean i know correlation is not proof of causality but still it should at least give one pause

 

not particularly. I prefer 1 on 1 romance. at most a guy with 2 girls I could accept.

 

if it comes to polygamy MT is the only novel that i know succeed well
sevens with a harem forced on him by the one he really love is good too
the heroines actually have personalities and they are actually fighting among themselves
but the series is not yet finished translating so i'm waiting

but the harem/polygamy end i really like is from the manga
Fujimura-kun mates
it is actualy a spoiler but

Spoiler

the harem/polygamy ended anticlimatic but made as a part of the joke for comedy purpose

- edit: spoiler code added-

 

In my opinion , i do like harem/polygamy in novels. As a guy, i won't deny that is quite the situation. But that also depends how is the romance within the story is portrayed. If you have a sole opposite gender within a world of the other opposite then i would generally find it acceptable for a harem to form, or for a harem to form the MC must have some sort of likable quality that separates the MC from the others. If no efforts is put into developing the relationships between each harem member and the MC, instead of some shallow reason binding the harem members to he MC, then the harem is badly executed.

As for justifying the harem, i don't have any views on it, as ultimately it is within a novel. I read for the sake of things that do not happen in actual life. Although keeping things within reasonable limits would still be required so people could relate to it at some degree.

 

Harems came about because:

1) Men of all ages think with their lower half

2) Women often died in child birth

3) Babies often died in their infancy

4) The pressure to leave behind a male heir

5) Multiple wives were a symbol of wealth ( "I am your emperor, look at how many beautiful women I can keep" )

6) Daughters were used to form connections between households / as currency

I don't like harems. The real thing was a prison sentence for women unless they caught their husband's / purchaser's eye. If they failed to conceive and the husband didn't like them, they spent the rest of their lives in a cage. If they did conceive a son and the husband didn't like them, nothing would change unless their son took power. This would lead to resentment among half-siblings, and eventually the children of the harem would kill each other for the right to inherit one lecherous old man's wealth.

Reality isn't pretty.

 

I don't really care. Its fiction.

 

some people have open relationships so its possible

 

It isn't like harem with a matriarch isn't unheard of, just that it is a lot less common. Even to this day, the Man tribe (recognized minority group in China, non-Han and closer to the Pashtuns genetically iirc) practice polygamy. The female can have multiple husbands, and assign them to specific tasks. There's also the extinct Xiaha tribe that was a militant matriarch tribe that has records from as late as the Tang dynasty.

There's a lot of debate on the merits of monogamy as well, since there are lot of common problems. The main proponent that shifted polygamy towards exclusive monogamy (monogamy was still practice alongside polygamy, often within the same society, depending on practicality) is almost exclusively religious in nature and only really happened within the last hundred years or so (It, amusingly enough, also tied in with the history of pornography.)

Ignoring the upper crust of society (where really all the really fucked up shit came about), even the lower end family can be polygamous. This is due to familial stability. There's all these claims that "women can't do jackshit", but that's really dependent on the time, location and regime. The Milan houses had matriarchs keeping their house running when all the male heads died off. The Russians during the tsardom period had women doing the work of men and sometime filling in their role, something that can't be done without polygamy as a single mother would be overtaxed and kaput due to overwork.

If it wasn't for the fact that Christianity became the dominate religion for an extended period of time, where they use the fact that the Orients are "barbarians" because they don't practice similar marriage structures (amongst other things), exclusive monogamy wouldn't be a thing. Let's face it, people, especially in the Far East lower societal strata, were often pragmatic. If A works, go with A, if B works, go with B. It usually took a heavyhanded enforcement for them to change.

The Qin legalism and Confucism really fucked with Han society and the subsequent dynasties in regards to polygamy though.


Back on topic.

I don't mind when it's done well. But aside from MT and a few historic fictions, period dramas and the occasional fantasies, it's usually done horribly - *points at the majority of the LNs with harem tags*