If polygamy can empower women, why not legalize it?

[EdKociela]

96. It doesn't quite work out that way

Theoretically, polygamy among consenting adults sounds like an issue of personal choice. However, in practice, it rarely is. In the majority of polygamist communities in modern-day America, polygamy entails the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of children and women. It entails fraud as these "families"illegally obtain government health and welfare benefits. It entails the denial of basic civil rights among women who are coerced by religion to exchange their independence for a form of slavery and obedience to achieve salvation in the afterlife. To understand polygamy in practice one must understand the context of the practice, not the idealism. It is easy to dismiss it as an act that should be allowed among consenting adults, however it is much more complex than that.