Time magazine asks: "Is Monogamy Over?"

That's the top question on the cover of Time for its "Question Everything" issue this week.

What's inside is no great shakes. Time asked ten supposedly interesting people whether monogamy has a future. Most of their replies seem off-the-cuff and are only mildly entertaining. Not one mentions "ethical non-monogamy", "open relationships" or "polyamory." It's mostly about cheating. With jokes.

Coming closest is porn actor and producer James Deen, who observes,

...The beauty of sexuality is that it’s open-ended. There’s no right, there’s no wrong. [Cringe. –Ed.] It’s based on the individual. The beauty of it is that just because one person, or two people, or three people, or however many people are involved in a relationship structure that works for them, that doesn’t mean that’s the right way. All that needs to happen is that when people enter into relationships, and while they’re in these relationships, they need to have open discussions about their emotions, feelings and boundaries, and then they need to respect each other. I’ve been in relationships where anything went; I’ve been in relationships where I didn’t have sex off camera at all. The interest of the youth doesn’t seem to be the consistent with the old format of relationships.

So, is it monogamy obsolete? Absolutely not. Is it something that’s in the future we’re going to see less of? Yes.

But that first paragraph didn't make it into the print edition (Time still has a paid circulation of 3.2 million).

David Barash, co-author of The Myth of Monogamy, says it's unnatural but do it for the kids. Nathan Collier of Montana argues for legalizing polygamy; he and his two wives, you'll remember, just filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana that could become a test case. Miss Piggy huffs about her breakup with Kermit.

You might write a letter to Time pointing out their glaring oversight on the topic: letters@time.com .

The interesting thing here is that Time's marketing experts chose this question as the one that would grab the most people's eyes.

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