Forum: Story Ideas

Harem for financial/security reasons

XofDallas 🚫

In another forum here, 56ilywm1t requested stories involving harems created for reasons other than sex (at least that's my take on it).

Thinking on it, I do sincerely believe such situations are possible - perhaps even likely. To flesh it out, I'm thinking of a few conversations/situations I've encountered in the past that would support that notion:

1. Met a smoking hot girl, likely about 25, in the hot tub of a health club (good place for such a girl to meet "successful"guys, I'd think). Good conversationalist, interesting. In a couple of conversations, I learned she was dating, and open to more dating (not to worry, I felt I was waaaay out of her age range). She seemed pretty matter of fact about it. A couple of months later, I learned she'd moved to Florida where she'd met and married a very well-off man in his early 30s. My impression was that she was husband-hunting, but that she was very up-front about it;

2. I met another very attractive woman who lived in one of the high-end suburban communities in my area. We were talking about all sorts of things, she was married to an older man, and I'd asked her if she was ok with that. Her smiling response: "Oh yes. I'm very content. He takes very good care of me;"

3. I knew a couple who were polyamorous, a long time ago. Both of them quite attractive. I asked the girl about how poly worked for them. She said something that stuck with me to this day: "X, you just have to understand that it's possible to have a perfectly good, successful, loving relationship that can also end happily and successfully with something other than 'till death do us part.'" About a year later, she got a great job offer in her home country (Hungary), and they split amicably;

4. As I've aged (I don't think I'll ever mature), I've come to value intelligent discourse right up there with affection and intimacy. I'm not saying that beauty doesn't count - it does - but beauty is not even close to the most important factor, especially if it's outweighed by narcissism, etc.

So, that being said, what would be qualities other than sexuality or love that would foster a harem? Safety; security; trust; intimacy; intelligent conversation; financial considerations; rearing of children; continued education of children; (possibly) business relations; other?

Anyway, it's an idea...

Replies: limab aiming4awesome

limab 🚫
Updated:

@XofDallas

Greven in Just When I Thought it Was All Over has a "harem" with three circles, wives that are married, tradition wives whose children cannot inherit titles, and concubines who may or may not share his bed. the concubines are part of his household but some are lesbian, traumatized or got married. Being part of his household gives them legal protections.

So: Safety; security; trust; possibly intimacy; intelligent conversation possible; financial considerations' farming with no man; rearing of children; continued education of children; (possibly) business relations- he helps there too. I feel that there should be a few others, but your list seems rather complete.

Now that I think of it Lucky Jim 2 has some of this also with not fitting into a religious culture after education.

Interesting thought experiment, limab

Replies: XofDallas

XofDallas 🚫

@limab

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I remember a Heinlein character in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" saying that the primary purposes of a marriage are the raising of children and the preservation of capital.

The man was in a line marriage, and line polyamory is more common than people realize in the U.S., anyway. Harems are basically "hub" or "nodal" polyamory, with the harem leader being the hub. Interestingly, in the book mentioned above, it was females who were most often the "hub" of a non-line marriage, as there were far fewer females than males in that population.

aiming4awesome 🚫

@XofDallas

I'm presuming that you're not including speculative fiction stories such as post-apocalyptic or other extreme hardship scenarios where harems figure into survival of either the group members, a community or cultural group, or, at the extreme, the species? Outside of something like that, in a "real world" scenario, what you're talking about seems as if it would be completely transactional. For it to be considered a harem, per se, a sexual relationship would clearly be assumed. Lacking the sexual element, it's more of a collectivist or communal living situation. So if it's not for sex or love, the only reason for a harem member to participate is to trade sex for security, be it physical or financial. Emotional or psychological security would probably bleed more into actual affection, though it could be argued that a sufficiently capable author could tap dance that razor's edge without having the characters getting all up into their feelings. It would just have to be an exceedingly clever plot device or it would feel contrived and beyond reasonable belief.

I guess what I'm saying is that in real-world scenarios, it's always going to be about the sex at some level, where all parties are getting something from the sexual end of the relationship, or else it would just end up as a communal living situation, and not be definable as a harem. At least that's my take.

Replies: XofDallas

XofDallas 🚫

@aiming4awesome

In a sense, I agree with you. As far as I'm concerned, a transactional element would either be a factor or in some sense might almost be required. But I also believe that affection, likeability, etc. can also be a factor.

As an example, there are several stories where older mature man winds up providing a home for daughter and a bunch of her female friends, and there winds up being a lot of sex involved. The amount of "romantic" love involved might be questionable, but there are other kinds of love.

So, what if the arrangement is not pre-packaged or confined to college girls, etc? What if the arrangement(s) might involve one or more of the following: financial security; mentoring; fathering and raising of a child; protection; emotional stability? And what if the "pieces" are added and subtracted in a piecemeal fashion?

Most marriages that get started in the U.S. do not wind up being "till death do us part," and typical poly relationships (and I'm not talking about swinging here) may be short or long term, but may also end without the "till death do us part" scenario. I believe it is possible for there to be a perfectly successful relationship that ends successfully and amicably, without the -death- ending. It happens a lot with married couples who fall out of romantic and erotic love with each other, but who stay together as de facto friends and housemates, and split after the youngest child goes off to college or whatever. In that case, if the alpha (whether male or female) is wealthy wealthy and/or stable enough, why not have multiples of same, perhaps with the relationships being in differing stages?

Enough said for now - time for me to settle down. :)

Reply to topic

Forum: Story Ideas

Harem for financial/security reasons

WARNING! ADULT CONTENT...