Why Animals And Governors Struggle With Monogamy

That question of whether monogamy is natural or not has been kicked around probably since it was decided that monogamy should be natural. Now with Spitzergate and new governor David Paterson's preemptive disclosure of his and his wife's own indiscretions, The New York Times has added fuel to the "not natural" fire by examining what actually happens in nature:

[Cheating has] all been done before, every snickering bit of it, and not just by powerful "risk-taking" alpha men who may or may not be enriched for the hormone testosterone. It's been done by many other creatures, tens of thousands of other species, by male and female representatives of every taxonomic twig on the great tree of life. Sexual promiscuity is rampant throughout nature, and true faithfulness a fond fantasy. Oh, there are plenty of animals in which males and females team up to raise young, as we do, that form "pair bonds" of impressive endurance and apparent mutual affection, spending hours reaffirming their partnership by snuggling together like prairie voles or singing hooty, doo-wop love songs like gibbons, or dancing goofily like blue-footed boobies.

Yet as biologists have discovered through the application of DNA paternity tests to the offspring of these bonded pairs, social monogamy is very rarely accompanied by sexual, or genetic, monogamy. Assay the kids in a given brood, whether of birds, voles, lesser apes, foxes or any other pair-bonding species, and anywhere from 10 to 70 percent will prove to have been sired by somebody other than the resident male.

Keep reading.

-or-

Read blogger Matt Titus's advice on how to be faithful.

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Read blogger Rachel Kramer Bussel's case for open relationships.

Where do you stand? Is monogamy natural or not? Tell us below in comments.

Comments

[leftLibertarian]

Has anyone tried naughtyornice.com which Huff is advertising?

[stargazer13]

people are what we are we try very hard to fit in to the rules of society
I my self think the rules are wrong look how much heart break would be avoided if we were bought up knowing we could have sex with who ever we wanted to with out sending a message that I love him or her more then I love you .if we just excepted who and how we were .people who like a variety of sexual partners and experiences then the life partner would not feel unwanted or unloved or betrayed .all those negative feelings that come with not being monogamous to one person would go the way of the wind and the world I would hazard to guess would be way better off .look at all the heart break that comes when belief systems fail

[Potomacker]

In fact, there is a correlation between class and the certainty that a man is raising his own children. The lower the economic status, the more likely that a woman is attempting, furtively or not, to pass on the parenting responsibilities to another man. Is this good or bad for the species?
I don't know but I do notice that the fingers on nearly all women only point in one direction.

[LordMoon]

Let's say your married to the worlds greatest tennis player and you play tennis with them three times a week.. After several years no matter how good they are as a tennis player, your going to want to play with someone else just for fun.

The problem with marriage in our culture is we've turned it into a game of possession, money and dominance. It's just not fun anymore..

[Peddler]

Marriage is not a game............it is a commitment.........when it becomes a game, you have lost the match.

[Libsrule]

There is no question that men and women have roving eyes. I guess it's just a matter of how much one or the other can resist the temptation and stay mongamous. I came so close to straying during my marriage and but I came to realize how I would feel if it was done to me and managed to stay on the straight and narrow BUT nonetheless it was very flattering to me to know that there were still women out there who found me attractive and sometimes I think that is what it is all about when it comes right down to it.

That we can still be attractive to the opposite sex.

As well I am sure there is also the feeling of being taken for granted, usually by the men but not always and the man or woman's need to feel validated as a human sexual being.

Well that's my 50 bucks worth.

[factanonverba]

Not exactly, from a Darwinian point of view there is the theory of extra-marital sex (ESM). ESM is quite simple the larger the differential in body size between a male and a female of a species, the greater the propensity for more than one mate. Gibbons are close cousins of ours. The males and females are identical in size and thus they are monogamous and mate for life. Male gorillas weight 800 lbs while female ones are more in the 300-400 lbs. Male gorillas keep harems of up to 7 or 8 females. Elephant seals show the greatest differential in size. A male elephant seal is 3,000 lbs and females more like 300 lbs. Harems of 70 or more are not uncommon. A human male is slightly larger than a human female. ESM predicts that male humans would have more than one sexual partner. The Koran calls for four. Odd how religion mirrors biology.

[lawrencelugar]

@HeadScratcher

I don't think paying $5500/hour for a hoe is considered "getting laid".

As for Eliot, he's just a plain idiot.

[Peddler]

You are so right................it called literally getting "screwed."

[Mikie]

What nonsense. That most animals other than humans are not monogamous is irrelevant. Most animals don't have the mental capacity to make the choice to be monogamous or not. If you don't want to be in a monogamous relationship either don't get married or marry someone that doesn't care who you sleep with.

Monogamy is not the issue in Spitzer's case. He broke the law. We can argue about whether or not we should have laws against prostitution and transporting them across state lines, but it is irrelevant to Spitzer's situation because the laws are currently on the books in New York and he broke them.

If there is anything to this NYT piece it is that it is unfortunate that David Paterson felt that he had to "preemptively" share with us the lack of monogamy in his marriage.

[BetterDays]

Finally, liberals have taken back the low road from the conservatives!

[jungpatawan]

I've already said this under Gloria Feldt's Spitzer column, OVER A WEEK AGO, but to spare you the work of digging for it, I'll repeat myself here:

"It's all part of the hard-wiring that makes you an alpha-male. And, to a greater or lesser extent, all males are similar. It's all part of being a larger mammalian male. Year-round, day in, day out, (night in, night out) we can produce millions of sperm several times a day. From 13 to 113, we stay fertile (if not virile). Our default setting is to screw as many partners as often as possible. One of Mother Nature's crueler jokes.

"This whole monogamy thing is an artificial construct imposed in the last couple of dozen centuries or so. That's not going to wipe out millions and millions of years of evolutionary instinct.

"During the act of copulation, the female preying mantis lops the head off the male and eats it, all while his nether regions keep copulating.

"And THAT, my friends, says all you need to know about sex, relationships, and politics in America today."

JP

[HeadScratcher]

All I know is I wasted 30 years of my life working in high level state government positions in a midwestern state. I should have moved to Albany and worked there since it seems that they're all getting laid all over the place.

[JohnKemp]

Libs never fail to come up with "rationalizations" when one of their own falls.

I wonder what the effect of Spitzer's inability to remain loyal had on his wife & three daughters? I can only assume that the NYT will get around to that issue.

Interesting comment from one of my friends; "I wonder how Spitzer would have handled the "monogamous" details had his wife hired a male prosititute to 'service' her for the past six years?"

[ipitombi]

All animals of the world will be so insulted..., imagine comparing their morals to that of US governors

[conservativesoncrack]

I imagine this article ought to get the wacko's blood boiling. Nature just does not seem able to conform to thier right wing freak religious "reality". Too bad good people get caught in thier moralistic traps of fantasy.

[avicenna]

Just wanted to point out the non-sequitor in the title: "animals and governors..." - assuming you're speaking of a governor that is human - it is a redundant statement since humans are, in fact, animals.

[Ipanemagirl]

My sentiments exactly peterg76! You said in one line what I tried to explain in many paragraphs, see my comment under ipanemagirl.
Thanks!