Seeking Sister Wives!

[Trixiefirecracker]

What have I watched? 😳 Was a bit like watching a train wreck but it came up in my FB feed and I honestly was just amazed by the content! Is it really true? Are these people real? Will Roberta have a baby with the creepy Garrick ‘stepford husband’? Will the Snowden’s realise how utterly bonkers they all appear? I’m gripped. Now I want to know if anyone really knows a polygamous couple in RL?! 😂

@Trixiefirecracker

What have I watched? 😳 Was a bit like watching a train wreck but it came up in my FB feed and I honestly was just amazed by the content! Is it really true? Are these people real? Will Roberta have a baby with the creepy Garrick ‘stepford husband’? Will the Snowden’s realise how utterly bonkers they all appear? I’m gripped. Now I want to know if anyone really knows a polygamous couple in RL?! 😂

I met a polygamous family when I was abroad once. The kids hated each other and fought all the time. The one wife seemed to have special needs.

My best friend is in a "thruple" but there are no children and won't be. They are all haply, and all allowed to have other relationships if the others "ok" it.

I have to say I found it all very coercive, like they had a kind of been brain washed in to thinking this was a good idea, especially the Merrifields. My heart went out to Danielle, who clearly wasn’t fully in to the idea at all and struggling massively.

@IstayedForTheFeminism sounds very fortunate that there are no children involved. The way polygamy is portrayed in this programme is that family is the main driving force, although I doubt that.

Have you watched sisterwives? It’s about a guy who had 3 wives and lots of kids and then took on a 4th wife. They moved states and it’s been like watching a slow train wreck watching the family implode over the past 16 seasons. One of the wives has just left him, he told a other they would never have an intmage relationship again.

I haven’t! Sounds awful but compelling! 😂

I know several “throuples” as well as many couples in open relationships (mine included) some with kids, some without. The reality is that they’re no more bonkers than the average couple relationship, but obviously that doesn’t make for good TV, so producers don’t tend to want to make a show about it. Audiences want the high drama weirdness you’re gripped by, not ordinary happy people just living a slightly different lifestyle.

@ComtesseDeSpair I dont think this is the same as polygamy though and yes, you are correct in the sensationalist nature of TV however, on this particular programme there was a religious polygamous trifecta just happily going about their life quietly and they happened to be the ones I related to most, or liked the most. However, I still can’t help thinking it benefits the men more. The situations you talk about are different as everyone has ‘choices’ or holds the power I suppose to choose their relationships. In polygamy the men only get to have sex with the women, the women are not allowed to have sex with any other men or each other. The balance of power is very one sided. That is what I find ‘bonkers’ about it.

I know one "thruple" (two men and one woman). They keep it pretty quiet, and seem happy. Not religious. I don't know if they'd describe themselves as polyamorous or in an open relationship, it's a closed triangle as far as I gather.

No idea if they're planning a family (not my business) or if they'll stay in it for the long run, but it seems to be working for them right now.

I don't think they'd make good TV! All very undramatic.

I think the Snowden’s split up

@Lockheart

I know one "thruple" (two men and one woman). They keep it pretty quiet, and seem happy. Not religious. I don't know if they'd describe themselves as polyamorous or in an open relationship, it's a closed triangle as far as I gather.

No idea if they're planning a family (not my business) or if they'll stay in it for the long run, but it seems to be working for them right now.

I don't think they'd make good TV! All very undramatic.

I think, again, this is very different from what I can see in the Sister-Wives programmes, it’s a form of polygamy, polygyny, where men marry more than one wife. The women seem to draw the short straw in all of this and it appears mostly it is led by the man’s desires. I think living as a consenting ‘thrupple’ sounds like more of a decision you all make together that is more mutual and possibly less power-hungry. If that makes sense.

Really? Although that doesn’t surprise me. There was something majorly ‘off’ with them.

I suppose it depends on the prism you view it through. Religious people who practice plural marriage engage with it through the lens of theology, so to them it’s presumably going to feel less something led by the man’s desires and to benefit him and more something led by God which facilitates the creation of a broader family unit to the benefit of them all. And the point about TV programmes not being representative still stands: people like the Snowdens who appear strange and dysfunctional would almost certainly still be strange and have a dysfunctional marriage even if they were monogamous: the polygyny is a bit of a red herring.

I’m not entirely sure the last part of your post rings true. However we will never know really. The overwhelming feeling I got was that the choosing of a plural life was usually a man’s desire that was often disguised as being god’s will in order to legitimise it. Not many religions sanctify polygamy and very few in the program were members of those religions. I’m fact one couple had been thrown out of their church for that very reason. Many spoke of some calling from god but nothing that really related to their actual religious doctrine. Just lots of Randy men wanting an excuse to cheat and legitimising it through made up religious fervour.