Actually, you have bought into a number of common misconceptions. Census figures for the time make it clear that the number of men in Utah outnumbered the number of women in Utah in the 1800s. Many of the women Joseph Smith married were already married to other men. It is one thing for a 21 year old to marry a teenager. Or perhaps a 17 year old to marry a teenager. But a 37 year old who already has a number of wives? And it appears the young women that Joseph married were actually considered physically attractive. Would you defend the society currently existing in Southern Utah in which young women are forced to marry older men while young men are kicked out because they are competition for the older men? I think the question I asked is a legitimate one. It goes to the central question of whether Mormons in the 1800s believed in the family values Mormons now claim to defend.
Obviously, but the reasons Mormons practiced polygamy had nothing to do with an overabundance of females. Joseph Smith married the wives of other men. He married young women who had every prospect of eventually finding a spouse of their own age (and in fact did so after Joseph Smith was murdered). The excuses offered by Mormons for polygamy never hold up in fact.
But you mentioned Utah’s gender balance while talking about Smith. And how was that census taken? The LDS communitiy in Utah had been through a lot and were a very insular community in the 1800’s. And of course the women found spouses after Smith died, like I said, it was women’s lot in those days to marry as supporting herself was really not an option. Older gents were frequently more attractive as spouses too because they tended to be more successful financially. The young men Smith’s wives eschewed when they married Smith were likely more successful by the time Smith died and so had higher worth in the marriage market.
The thing that gets me about the whole polygamy thing is D&C 132 clearly states that polyandry is forbidden, and that Emma Smith would’ve been destroyed if she practiced it. Only polygyny was acceptable, yet Joseph Smith went ahead and married other mens wives while the men were on mission or at times gave their go ahead. Essentially making the women polyamorous at least, and probably practicing polyandry which appears to be explicitly forbidden in D&C 132.
You need to read Compton’s book before you say these women weren’t miserable. They really didn’t have much choice but to submit. Those who didn’t were villified in the community (Nancy Rigdon is a good example of this).
Unless Muslims are doing it. Then criticizing them is politically incorrect.
I have quite a few friends with polygamy in their histories. I remember two female friends from college who were descendants of the same man but two different wives. In researching their own history the one said, “I am descended from the wife he liked.” The other said, “And I am a descendant of the wife he hated.” Neither wife though, liked the other or the other wives. There was jealousy and back-biting all the time.
How expedient.