“Polyamory is of course another solution, but is socially expensive.”
I’d think that would be an example of “trading status to gain sex”, so presumably the opposite is true of refusing this option. So we seem to be in agreement there at least...
Socially expensive, not financially expensive; it’s kind of theoretic either way, because if we posit a society in which “No sex before marriage” is the standard, we might as well posit a society in which polyamory is the standard, but in the case of such a society, there would be less resistance to casual dating.
a society in which “No sex before marriage” is the standard
That seems an unfair comparison, since, as far as I know, there actually ARE quite a few examples of that, both historically and currently. I’m not aware of anywhere near the same level of polyamory-as-standard (it generally seems to be polygamy or some other variant where high status earns you additional mates, rather than the “Bay Area” style of simply dating multiple people)
Why would “not having sex” make dating cheaper?
I’d think that would be an example of “trading status to gain sex”, so presumably the opposite is true of refusing this option. So we seem to be in agreement there at least...
Socially expensive, not financially expensive; it’s kind of theoretic either way, because if we posit a society in which “No sex before marriage” is the standard, we might as well posit a society in which polyamory is the standard, but in the case of such a society, there would be less resistance to casual dating.
That seems an unfair comparison, since, as far as I know, there actually ARE quite a few examples of that, both historically and currently. I’m not aware of anywhere near the same level of polyamory-as-standard (it generally seems to be polygamy or some other variant where high status earns you additional mates, rather than the “Bay Area” style of simply dating multiple people)