Polygamy USA - Sister Wives (2010) Discussion

[–] geezwhatnext 8 years ago

It sounds interesting, I'll have to see if it's on demand. I watched a you tube show yesterday called Personal Polygamy. It featured women who left the faith, as well as families still in it. It held my interest. I do feel personally fortunate not to have been born into a polygamous family. The Brown kids say though, that they had a good upbringing, but it's telling none so far have chosen it as adults.

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[–] Heygirl215 8 years ago

Im watching season 2 of Sister Wives now and they are not like the stereotypical polygamists that we normally hear about, which is good. I think the kids don't want to live this life because it's depressing emotionally. Who wants to have 30 brothers and sisters, 8 moms, never having your dad's full attention, your mom always sad and crying because dad is at wife #3's tonight. It's depressing. When I watched My Fives Wives, Polly (the legal wife) would do little passive aggressive things to get Brady's time when he was with Rosemary in particular. Polly would do things like call Brady and say "Oh my window is stuck and won't close, it's really cold" and here Brady would come running and next thing you know Rosemary loss an hour with him. Out of all of his kids not a single one even entertained the idea of polygamy even for a second. I remember when the crazy wife Nonie wanted another baby and ended up pregnant her teen son Paul said straight up it was a bad idea and that resources were already limited and they barely got to see their dad as it was. My Five Wives was way more realistic and more dirty than Sister Wives.

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[–] geezwhatnext 8 years ago

I watched My Five Wives as well, and I agree, it was more than likely much more real than Sister Wives. Depressed women and kids unhappy, too. One dad for 20 something kids? Very sad.

The documentary I posted about earlier was pretty raw in parts, and depicts polygamy as nothing I would ever want to be a part of. Just seeing Sister Wives reenforces monogamy for me, absolutely.

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[–] desertdude1953 8 years ago

Polygamy USA was a great one season series. It delves into the Centennial Park community, which broke off from the FLDS when Warren Jeffs became the leader of that very strange incestuous group.

I have visited Centennial Park several times, and unlike the FLDS, they are not suspicious about outsiders, and are great people.

In many ways they are much more like the AUB (the group the Browns belong to) than the FLDS. I grew up in the area where the AUB are headquartered, so it is interesting to compare the two groups.

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[–] cinles 8 years ago

It sounds familiar - wasn't this on awhile back??

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[–] desertdude1953 8 years ago

I think it was on in 2013. If I remember right it was originally on Nat Geo channel.

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[–] Juliegirlj4 8 years ago

It is very interesting! In some ways the community reminds of Amish traditions. Mentoring young people in their community to become productive upstanding adults is something every town could use!

I watched the series on YouTube.

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[–] jonnieblack 8 years ago

I saw that series when it originally aired. Motivated by religion yes, but a religion that says that the "elders," all men of course, have direct communication with God and make decisions for the community that way. Especially disturbing was something called "placement marriage." Teenage girls are supposed to be inspired by God as to who their husband should be, and then I think the guy has to marry her. (They didn't get married until they turned 18 and many of the girls married men not too much older than they were so nothing like the Warren Jeffs group). I remember one girl had turned 18 and they were all worried because she hadn't been inspired as to who her husband should be, so she was going to go to the elders to get them inspired to choose her husband. Yikes, she is only 18. I also remember numerous times members of the community talking about how monogamy leads to promiscuity.

A very interesting program but wow, some pretty messed up ideas.

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[–] Juliegirlj4 8 years ago

Absolutely agree. Even though the community is led by a group of elders, one man seemed to be very prominent (at least in the tv show). The placement marriage is very strange indeed. I did very much admire how young people were taught to service their community though.

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[–] jmerrilee-138-891989 8 years ago

I loved watching that show and wished they had more seasons. I did find it really interesting and I hope when they said 'any kids can leave if they want to' they meant it. I think the elder's son even left and daughter too but they weren't banned unlike some like Scientology. I do find it a bit disturbing that any 18 year old can just pick whoever she wants to marry. Yes that is more girl-power I guess but the guy gets no say at all? He's just fine with it? I remember there was this one man who was working to get a wife and he was rather good looking and I could just tell there were girls waiting for him to come on the market, and sure enough a week or so later he had a wife, a very plain looking wife but he seemed happy. I hope she's prepared to share a lot.

Once thing I did like about it all was the fact the community seemed to help each other when needed, like to build some weird semi trailer home for extra kids. But being that most homes have over-flowing families there's a limit on how much they can help. I also found it disturbing they mentioned the first and legal wives rarely had real jobs so they could collect welfare.

I wonder if the men had extra motivation to stay looking good in order to attract more wives? Especially if they wanted 7 of them like that one wanted.

I hated how the council was all men, if women had been involved then it wouldn't have bothered me so much. I know they'd probably have a heart attack at the thought but I'd like to see a woman with multiple husbands allowed. I know I'm dreaming but fair right?

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[–] jonnieblack 8 years ago

I also would have liked to see more. I wonder what happened to Rosemary (or Rosemarie?), the 18 year old who hadn't had her inspiration to find a husband. I remember that the young unmarried men were anxious to prove themselves worthy to attract a wife. While that is a big improvement over the Jeffs group and that ilk who seem to collect all the young women and marry them off to old farts, I wondered what would happen to a man who did not want to marry a woman who named him as her inspiration husband. My guess is they would have to leave the group.

There was another woman, second wife, who had been inspired as a high school student that her teacher should be her husband. After she turned 18 they got married. They seemed happy on the show. I guess what creeped me out about it is that these decisions are being made by such young girls, guys have no say, and the worst of all the pressure to get married so young. That seems to be a common theme among all of these groups, the difference is in how they go about it. To be fair, there was no evidence of any underage marriage in this group.

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[–] Juliegirlj4 8 years ago

I read on another board that Rose Marie actually did get married and posts regularly on Facebook. She married a young man her age and is the only wife for now at least.

That one son of the prominent elder- I think his name was Ezra- has a baby with the girl he was dating from outside their community, but they are no longer together.

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