Originally posted on greenfairydotcom

The blasted Mail again. I curse the very day it went online. Today it brings me the news of a survey that has found nearly six in 10 people believe it is normal for a person in their 30s to have had 10 or more lovers during their single years. Or, phrasing it with that deliciously subtle editorial bias that always gets my extremities tingling;

Survey highlights Brits' loose morals

Fewer than half of the 2,127 Britons surveyed believed that staying faithful to one partner was "natural". Only 42% said monogamy was "the natural state for human beings".

God help Britannia. We'll be rutting in the streets next. (Actually, do you know how hard that is to do these days? You would think that at four in the morning there would be at least one secluded spot in town that didn't have a security camera trained upon it. Well, there was one, but as it was down the side of a police station the brief ensuing cost/benefit analysis did not return in our favour.)

A little clarification would not go amiss as to what people think 'natural' in this context means, though. I'm neither for or against the promotion of monogamy per se, but just as I am wary of people who would claim it as the proper order of things I have a terrible suspicion that people who say it's not 'natural' have heads swimming with ideas of cavemen spawning at random to ensure the propagation of the species and are quickly going to try and back up their notions with an argument containing the word 'biology', at which point I'm going to have to go outside for some fresh air.

I don't like the apology implied within the 'natural' label, a word used to tag a way of behaving so it seems more palatable, a balm to soothe those who might not share those ideals. 'Natural' is a 'normal' for those afraid of being abnormal, those who want to continue to behave in the fashion that suits them but are afraid of what others are thinking.

Marry after two weeks together and fifty years of monogamy later smirk at those who told you it wouldn't last. Fuck in front of the same CCTV camera three nights in a row with three different people and blow a kiss to the security guard when you leave. And don't even think about trying to justify it.

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