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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   26618 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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serial monogamy, which is something that has zero allure to promiscuous men

There are a lot of ex-wives out there who would be surprised to hear that. I'd agree that male promiscuity leans toward trying to attract multiple mates in parallel rather than in serial, but cads who "trade in their wives for newer models" are a stereotype (and occasionally a hilarious stereotype) for a reason.

To what extent was this phenomenon a social reality, I wonder? Outside the imagination of Boomer feminist activists, that is?

Prominent examples of male infidelity + divorce + serial monogamy with younger partners currently include the President of the United States, around half of the six richest men in the world, the last male UK Prime Minister before this one, two of the last three governors of California ...

Though, looking into details, I'm not sure any of them became serial monogamists by choice, they're men who tried to pull off parallel polygyny in secret but got caught. I'd guess those men found serial monogamy more alluring than actual monogamy but tried to also pull off polygyny as long as they could first, but perhaps they just found polygyny so much more alluring that they were willing to risk it backfiring into serial monogamy if their spouse caught and didn't forgive them.

the last male UK Prime Minister before this one

Do you mean Rishi Sunak? How does he count? Did Schwarzenegger or Jerry Brown leave their wives and then marry a younger and hotter woman? I don't get it.

Damn it, I'm one Prime Minister off. I meant Boris Johnson.

Shwarzenegger's affair partner was 6 years younger than his wife, though I wouldn't say hotter. After Gavin Newsom's divorce he dated a woman literally half his age, but the woman he married was only 7 years younger. I'm afraid I also misremembered a bit about Newsom: the "affair" he was part of might not have started until after he was divorced, in which case the only infidelity was that the woman was married to ... well, Wiki calls Alex Tourk "Newsom's close friend", but I feel like the rest of the sentence disproves that description.

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