[mixtupcpl]

I know this will offend MANY, but I do believe that many of the off sited famously poly "communities", have nothing to do with the kind of poly discussed on this site and are rooted in a kind of misogyny.

I dont want to pick on Islam as an example, but its a well known one. Fundamentalist Islam is certainly the most wide spread "mainstream" polygamy and, at its core, it is horribly misogynistic. Hence, I dont feel it "counts". It isnt about accepting the idea of "group love", but rather it is about the idea of a man having absolute societal control.

And as for the men "losing out", that's not really the case since, again, these behaviors date back to a time when there were hardly any men left. Is it the case today? Sort of. But then again, in the modern world, most men can't really afford multiple wives so it probably puts a damper on it. So now you have a kind of caste system coming into play as well.

Travel the Middle East (I have extensively). Any fundamentalist Islamist can have multiple wives, but the ones who most famously do are the extended family of the (fabulously wealthy) royal families. The average schmuck can barely pay for one wife. Now of course if they just accepted that women are human and let them get educated and participate fully in society... But thats another issue. Dont get me started.

And yes, I realize that Christianity and even Judaism have been misogynistic at times as well (and sometimes even today), but those religions arent currently poly practicing which is the main topic really.

I dont know of any human society where the kind of "free love" poly arrangements discussed here evolved as the actual norm. I personally just dont think they'd ever be functional on a large scale. As a subclass? Sure.