UNLV students learn about polygamy through reproductive game

There are the famous three R's: reading, writing and arithmetic. That's old school.

Inside University of Nevada, Las Vegas' human sexuality class, it's about the three P's: polygamy, polyandry and polygyny. That's new school.

On Thursday, 150 students not only learned the concepts of plural marriage in the classroom, they played a reproductive game in the quad that demonstrated how women choose potential mates.

The numbers 1 through 15 attached to the men's backs on sticky notes represented their virility. A high number meant he was very virile; the low number meant he wasn't exactly in his prime.

In the end, the men with high numbers had multiple women wanting to be their partners. Meanwhile, the men with the low numbers had few women approach them, with the exception of one.

"I only wanted one man, and I wanted him all to myself!" yelled an ecstatic Terri Thomas, 46, who chose a very young Jon Ituarte , 21, despite the lower number on his back.

"Hell, I've already got six children," Thomas said. "So I guess you can call me a cougar now."

HUMAN SEXUALITY CLASS

Enrollment in the human sexuality class, part of UNLV's Marriage and Family Therapy Program, has increased each year, thanks in part to a popular reality TV show.

"Sister Wives," now in its third season on TLC, explores the lives of Kody Brown, his four wives and their 17 children.

It doesn't hurt that freshman Logan Brown, one of those 17 children, decided to enroll at UNLV based on the school's reputation for being liberal and accepting.

The Brown family moved to Las Vegas in 2010 from Lehi, Utah, to escape possible prosecution from the Utah state attorney's office stemming from allegations of an illegal marriage.

The airing of "Sister Wives" put Kody Brown and his marriage to four women on the radar, although he says he is only married to one woman and the others are merely spiritual unions.

'SISTER WIVES'

Enter Markie Blumer, marriage and family therapy professor at UNLV. The reproductive game has been part of her human sexuality curriculum for years now - long before the TV show.

And yet, Blumer said, there's no question that student interest in plural marriage has increased since "Sister Wives" went on the air.

A few weeks ago, Kody and his four wives addressed a crowd of 300 students at the Student Union and answered a series of questions, including, "What is it like to live with four women, and what do the other women think of each other?"

"Plural families is a reality, no pun intended," Blumer said. "They exist. They exist in more than a hundred societies around the world. And they exist here, too. Mostly in the West. Estimates have put plural marriages here at ... 30,000 to 100,000 families."

What's even more interesting, Blumer said, is that the concept of plural marriage used to be taught "from an anthropological point of view."

"It was always talked about as though it was something 'over there,' but now it's happening in front of us. It's being broadcast into our living rooms. And now we've got the chance to educate students about it in a very real way."

CHOOSING MONOGAMY

It's so real that Diego Martinez, 20, couldn't help but feel popular, if not sexy, with four young women flocking to him because of the No. 15 stuck to his back.

"I had more girls coming up to me, but then the four started kicking the other girls out," he said. "And I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to get them mad."

Martinez said he wasn't against the concept of plural marriage, but he would never consider it as a lifestyle.

"I think it's best to just love one person, but that's just me," he said.

The same refrain was uttered by male and female students throughout the quad.

"I love the idea of monogamy," said Breanne Lynn, a psychology major and the last of the four women to run to Martinez. "I want my boyfriend to love me, and I want to love my boyfriend. I want all the attention, probably because I'm an only child, and I'm used to it."

Philip Candland, 35, who netted three women with the relatively low number 5, said he would never entertain the notion of dating more than one woman or marrying more than one woman.

"But because of this class and because of the TV series, I understand it more," said Candland, a graduate student in marriage and family therapy at UNLV. "For those who want to engage in it, and are serious about it, if it feels right, then it's right for them."

Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.