It’s the only wood you can use

Monogamy. Such an awkward sounding word. There are quite a few motions your tongue and lips have to make to say it clearly. And if you try to say it 10 times fast, mostly what happens is the “g” and the “n” transpose and you are left with “mogonamy”. I asked my boyfriend what he felt about monogamy and his response was: “Mahogany, such a good wood.”

After an eye roll, I decided to look up the word. The etymology is early 17thcentury French from the word “monogamie”, which is from Latin “monogamia”. The root is Greek — “monos” meaning single and gamos meaning “marriage”.

Then further down the rabbit hole I went into the internet spaces of real and fake. It hurt my liberal, feminist soul when for a few seconds I thought that I agreed with accidental Incel hero and smooth-talking Youtube psychologist Jordan Peterson about “enforced monogamy”. That it’s what our society tilts towards as a preference and how our society operates. That the norm is fidelity. Yada yada. Fishpaste.

But thank my happy socks that I don’t agree with his notion that our society needs monogamy to operate functionally. He suggests that this will help curb violent men. His idea is enough to put off any notion of monogamy. The idea that if there’s polygamy or a polyamory or however many variations, society will crumble. That is just being scared of a different society that does not fit into Peterson’s norm of the patriarchal

(a word he hates, of course) system we live in.

On the other end of the spectrum you get really long, think pieces on how human beings are not biologically equipped to be monogamous. Yada yada. Fishpaste.

Yes, monogamy is not for everyone. Yes, it’s endorsed by Peterson. But can I please still believe in it, please. It’s a good wood. ● LS

The norm is fidelity. Yada yada. Fishpaste