“The primitive hypothesis is the thing in Jness that says men are designed to spread their seed and women are designed to be monogamous,” Sarah Edmondson told me. This thinking became a shorthand used throughout the NXIVM curriculum, and a quiet point of contention for women who identified as polyamorous. Men needed sex with many partners—it was in their genes, Raniere claimed—while women were best suited to stay with one person for life. Any woman who challenged this was viewed as a troublemaker. “If you have a problem with it, it’s because you think you’re special. It’s the woman’s problem,”
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