Sister Wives

[ButterflyFaery]

another brilliant show brought to us by TLC on Sunday nights...lol...I watched tonight..its like a real life Big Love and it is interesting...tonight they introduced everyone and talked about bringing a 4th wife into the fold..for the most part they seem pretty normal large family

[libgirl2]

I'm sorry but I just can't watch or condone that show. CLips I saw of him saying he fell "in love" etc.... no, you just want your harem of women......

[bee stung lips]

I'm sorry but I just can't watch or condone that show. CLips I saw of him saying he fell "in love" etc.... no, you just want your harem of women......

I agree. Couldn't stomach looking at him and had to turn it off. Don't understand how a woman could want, or accept this lifestyle. To each his or her own, I guess.

[Poppy Fields]

What I found most interesting is that - unlike Big Love - this family is part of a larger community of polygamists. The wives grew up in families that believe in plural marriage. The house they live in was built by another polygamist family. Their kids attend a "community school" consisting of kids from polygamist families. They refer to themselves as "pliglets" and their parents as "pligs." They are a cult/community, and they seem to be financially secure/successful.

[canuckinchile]

Are they allowed to bring another "husband" into the family? I am guessing that would be a giant NO. To each his own, but I find it degrading to women.

[psycobabe007]

What I found most interesting is that - unlike Big Love - this family is part of a larger community of polygamists. The wives grew up in families that believe in plural marriage. The house they live in was built by another polygamist family. Their kids attend a "community school" consisting of kids from polygamist families. They refer to themselves as "pliglets" and their parents as "pligs." They are a cult/community, and they seem to be financially secure/successful.

This is totally different from the picture that they painted on the Today show. They said their kids go to public school, not a "community school" that only "pliglets" go to?

The guy just creeps me out. I don't know if I can watch this show for that reason alone.

[Holly in SoCal]

Can someone tell me how they can put a show on tv about people doing something that is illegal in the United States and no one goes to jail? And they are getting paid for sharing their story of their illegal activities!! Before you know it, there'll be a reality show about the lifestyle of a serial killer! It seems anything goes nowadays. On the tv show preview (I haven't watched the show) this man claims he just falls in love again and again....seems more like he falls "in lust" over and over again. These women must have very low self esteem to allow themselves to be treated this way. But, if they have been brought up this way...then I guess they have been brainwashed to think that they don't deserve anything better. Very sad, but afterall...they are in a cult and that's what cults do...brainwash people.

[Imperfect1]

Can someone tell me how they can put a show on tv about people doing something that is illegal in the United States and no one goes to jail? And they are getting paid for sharing their story of their illegal activities!! Before you know it, there'll be a reality show about the lifestyle of a serial killer! It seems anything goes nowadays.

Kody says he's legally married to only the first wife. All the others had a religious ceremony with him, but there's nothing illegal going on, in that regard.

[Imperfect1]

I watched the show and, oddly enough, liked it, and kinda liked the family, although I HATE the idea of polygamy because I too find it very degrading to the women. And yet, this family all seems to be okay about it, IF WE CAN BELIEVE what the wives are saying. And that's where I have my problem. It just seems too. . . sweet. Saccharine sweet. I can't put my finger on it, but something just seems a little off. If the wives are truly happy, and actually prefer this lifestyle, then good for them, they've got it. But, I don't know, something's weird about it, and it creeped me out a little. It's not so much a moral judgment --- it's more that -- for me, I just couldn't share a man that I was in love with. Period. I do like the idea of share space with other families, but just not sharing my husband.

[Poppy Fields]

I watched the show and, oddly enough, liked it, and kinda liked the family, although I HATE the idea of polygamy because I too find it very degrading to the women. And yet, this family all seems to be okay about it, IF WE CAN BELIEVE what the wives are saying. And that's where I have my problem. It just seems too. . . sweet. Saccharine sweet. I can't put my finger on it, but something just seems a little off. If the wives are truly happy, and actually prefer this lifestyle, then good for them, they've got it. But, I don't know, something's weird about it, and it creeped me out a little. It's not so much a moral judgment --- it's more that -- for me, I just couldn't share a man that I was in love with. Period. I do like the idea of share space with other families, but just not sharing my husband.

I, too, find this lifestyle choice somewhat unnerving. If I recall, the old teaching regarding plural marriage in the LDS church was that God called man to marry more than one wife and raise as many children as they were blessed with. Think Old Testament. Think Abraham, think Jacob. Think tents, nomads, goats, sheep, and a bunch of wives raising a bunch of kids in a completely patriarchal society. At one time the LDS church believed this to be God's will for the faithful. Needless to say, it took the principle of plural marriage down some very dark roads. This teaching was also abandoned by the LDS church long ago.

Plural marriage is still tied to religious belief, though. I don't think it's purely about libido and men exploiting women. The "patricarch" of each family has a lot of providing to do - and many demands placed on him. I can't imagine that this doesn't feel extremely claustophobic for the man sometimes. The family in this show are expecting their 13th child!

Most of the women who choose this kind of marriage were raised by parents who lived "the principle" and were loved/nurtured by their mothers' sister wives. For them, it's a choice that leads to a happy life and afterlife.

These peoples' lives are not like the lives of cult members on a "compound" where pubescent girls are sexually abused and boys are driven off. The kids in this family, and other like them, grow up with choices.