Unhitched a South African Slant

Unhitched

A South African Slant on the Slippery Slope

The chapter begins with a consideration of the "slippery slope" argument, which holds that, should gay marriage be legalized, it is a short and slippery road towards legalizing morally questionable behavior such as polygamy and even bestiality. The author points out that most gay rights advocates dismiss this argument as simply a manifestation of prejudice.

These preliminary thoughts are followed by the focus of the chapter on South Africa, not only as an emerging democracy, but also as a platform for the development of gay rights and marriage.

"It took only cursory study to realize that de jure and de facto support for family diversity generally, and for same-sex marriage and polygamy specifically, were as upside down in South African and the United States as is our geography." (p. 93)

In other words, the author recognizes the extreme complications surrounding each of these issues in both countries, where morality, politics, and human rights issues often clash rather than converge to make the relationships among the people involved even more complicated. No less influential is the way in which people outside of the cultures involved in the relationships to be legalized perceive those inside of them.

The most important point raised here is that, although South Africa is the only country where both plural and gay marriages are legal, the rampant prejudice, racism and cultural misunderstanding still present in the country often precludes those who have these rights from exercising them. Additionally, the author points out that the legalization of cultural practices such as polygamy also precludes the equal rights of women, as the cultures that promote these practices are, paradoxically, based upon inherent patriarchies.

Chapter 4: Paradoxes of Polygamy and Modernity

In this chapter, the author considers the discrepancy between the openly professed morality of most Americans, and the divergence from this morality in private lives. As a case in point, the chapter begins with the case of U.S. Congressman Vito Fossella, who would not visit family when his gay sister was present, but who secretly had a relationship and child with a woman other than his wife. According to the author (p. 123), "Vito and Victoria Fossella represent two of the decidedly unwitting bedfellows who jostle uncomfortably beneath the patchwork quilt of contemporary family forms and values."

Interestingly, the chapter points out that polygamy has historically been much more prevalent than monogamy, which was historically practiced by less than one quarter of the world's population. Again investigating the situation in South Africa, where polygamy is legalized, the author shows that there are several manifestations of this phenomenon. Some men, for example, do not bother to register polygamous marriages, since they started with a civil marriage, which precludes a legal change to polygamy. Although not legally married, they openly practice this. Other men engage in long-term extra-marital affairs, some of which are so culturally acceptable that mistresses are introduced to wives, and husbands divide their time among their different sets of families.