The women at the table didn’t like that.
“Additionally, the value of a single wife essentially drops down to nothing. A wife will know that he’s got sixteen others just like her. She would have zero leverage to get the husband to cooperate in any way. Also, can you imagine the politicking between the wives to get the husband’s time and attention?”
Greg shuddered at that dramatically and the men all laughed. Even some of the women smiled.
“But that’s not how things are now,” observed Quiara.
“Correct,” Greg replied, smiling in admiration at his wife. “Human civilizations evolved social systems that worked against hypergyny. Legal systems which protected individual rights developed. As an offshoot to individual rights, women were given the legal right to own property and to have self determination. Monogamy as an enforced social institution developed.”
“How did legal systems impede hypergyny?” asked Chen.
“I’m not an anthropologist or a sociologist, Chen,” said Greg. “You really need to ask someone with those credentials to get a full insight. I suspect that an anthropologist would say that the development of legal systems and individual rights ended ‘Might makes right.’ The strongest man was no longer allowed to simply take what he wants.”
“Yeah? And what makes monogamy so great?” asked Radu with a smirk, as if it were self-evident that monogamy was bad.
“Monogamy represents the best possible deal for all men and all women across the spectrum.” Greg stated. “Individual folks, the ones who get married to shitty partners, may not like it, but it is the best possible deal for society as a whole. It ensures a greater percentage of men have the opportunity to procreate, it maximizes genetic diversity for the species, and it maximizes the amount of support a wife receives from her husband for child rearing.”
“Wait,” said Chen, “We haven’t answered the original question. Why does the fact that less men than women reproduce mean that a woman cheating on a man is worse?”
Greg was thankful for Chen’s interjection.
“There are more women than men to start with, Men are in a minority. Further, they have a much smaller chance to reproduce than women. They are tremendously disadvantaged relative to females. Any cheating that takes place harms both parties, but as the man is already disadvantaged, the effect on him is, by definition, worse. Therefore, there is a disparate impact,” Greg pronounced.
The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Gerhart suddenly erupted into a booming deep belly laugh, “Ho ho ho ho! Greg is very wily, is he not? Bandy words with him at your own peril!”
Gerhart’s bonhomie lifted the table, and soon many others were laughing too and congratulating Greg on his argument. A few glasses were raised.
When the laughs died down, Gerhart asked, “You said there was a second argument, one from gender complementarianism?”
“This topic is a lot nerdier. Have I lost the room yet?” Greg asked, hoping people would be bored. For some reason, everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. He decided his is where he would take his stand.