{"id":4192,"date":"2017-02-20T10:15:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T09:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4192"},"modified":"2017-02-20T10:22:21","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T09:22:21","slug":"scarlett-johansson-on-monogamy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/4192\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarlett Johansson on Monogamy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staying on the subject of sex and relationships and messed up women, I have been forwarded this article<\/a> on Scarlett Johansson in which she is quoted as saying:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019s natural to be a monogamous person. I might be skewered for that, but I think it\u2019s work. It\u2019s a lot of work…And the fact that it is such work for so many people\u2014for everyone\u2014the fact of that proves that it is not a natural thing. It\u2019s something I have a lot of respect for and have participated in, but I think it definitely goes against some instinct to look beyond.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So anything that is hard work is unnatural? As the opening line in a Universal Loafer’s Charter this would take some beating but it’s clearly bollocks. Pretty much anything<\/em> worth doing requires effort, including getting yourself fed.<\/p>\n

Well, some have gotten animal about insisting that monogamy is unnatural, pointing to examples in the animal kingdom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On that basis eating one’s own turds is also natural. Should we be more open to this? Finding lunch partners might be problematic following adoption of such practices, but with enough education and a few Supreme Court rulings these issues can be overcome.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the argument, people have pointed to the health benefits of monogamy, such as …\u00a0offering more emotional and mental stability and comfort. Emotional and mental stability can in turn have a range of health benefits…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who knew?<\/p>\n

The final answer may be that monogamy is both natural and unnatural. Natural for some. Unnatural for others.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Ultimately, what’s natural depends on the individual and what fits the individual. It’s better to know where people really stand and let them choose the situation that works best for them as long as they are not hurting others (e.g., having multiple partners without appropriate protection and precaution can hurt others).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, yes. But that’s the issue, isn’t it? I am quite happy for people to engage in the wonders of polyamory and shun monogamy if it makes them happy, but I am permitted to be skeptical about those who, for no apparent reason, doth protest too much in telling me how great it is. Taking Scarlett Johansson as an example, I would have held her comments in higher regard had she said them when she was 21 and looked like\u00a0this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Than having been twice divorced at 32 and looking like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

True, she now has the wisdom of experience under her belt but cynics might think that, having fucked up two marriages and is now staring down the barrel of middle age and diminishing professional appeal, by declaring monogamy as unnatural she is looking to shift the blame for her own failings and, perhaps, launch a secondary career as an angry, bitter celebrity with a lesbian haircut turning up at wimmin’s marches denouncing The Patriarchy.<\/p>\n

Look, I get marriage and monogamy isn’t for everybody, and perhaps it isn’t “natural”. And I am quite prepared to believe that there are plenty of well-adjusted, normal people who are perfectly happy who have chosen to live in an alternative manner. Good for them. But it remains the case, at least in my experience, that most people are happiest in a normal, functioning, monogamous relationship despite all the difficulties involved in maintaining one. The vast majority of people would find the idea of their loving partner sleeping with somebody else to be abhorrent, and the jealousy and anger will bubble up from something deep inside them that has very much been put there by nature and not social conditioning.\u00a0If celebrities want to make statements denouncing monogamy and authors want to pen articles assuring everybody that shagging around doesn’t cause friction with their own partners, then fine. But the rest of us are entitled to point out that their advice is hardly a universal blueprint for personal happiness and question their motives for imparting it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staying on the subject of sex and relationships and messed up women, I have been forwarded this article on Scarlett Johansson in which she is quoted as saying: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s natural to be a monogamous person. I might … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[85,87,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4192"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4198,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192\/revisions\/4198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}