the best position is 5th wife... huh, the more you know. :P
I was flipping through channels last night & stumbled across a Dawn Porter documentary on TLC. It was the Polygamist's Wife episode of Dawn Porter: Extreme Wife. (TLC has renamed the series Forbidden Love, but I like the original name better.)
Just like when I watched that freebirthing documentary a few weeks ago, I came out of this more sympathetic to the subject than I thought I would be. Well, to be honest, I don't have that negative of an opinion towards polygamy as some people do. As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, I feel people can live however they want. (Yes, some polygamist groups do engage in child abuse & sexual assault but not all of them & it's not fair to tar everyone with the same brush.)
My biggest issues with that lifestyle revolve around the children. I don't know if it's because I'm childfree or what, but it just irritates the heck out of me to hear people go on & on about how the most important thing in a marriage or in a family is procreation & having as many children as possible. I'd rather be in a childless but love-filled marriage than a marriage based on 'respect' & bursting with children. But, hey, not everyone feels that way.
The complete isolation of the children was another sore point. One family lived in a town consisting of almost entirely other polygamist families in the middle of nowhere (for security reasons, away from prying eyes). Their children were taught in church-run school. And all of the kids were completely devoted to living the lifestyle primarily, at least in my opinion, because it was all they knew.
All in all, it was an interesting programme. (And, hee! She made a Doctor Who joke. One of the families featured lived in what she thought would be a pretty cramped double-wide trailer. Upon entering, she remarked that it was rather like the TARDIS -- bigger on the inside. :P)
TLC is showing another part of this series, Geisha Girl, next Sunday at 10pm. I've already marked it down on my calendar. XD
Just like when I watched that freebirthing documentary a few weeks ago, I came out of this more sympathetic to the subject than I thought I would be. Well, to be honest, I don't have that negative of an opinion towards polygamy as some people do. As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, I feel people can live however they want. (Yes, some polygamist groups do engage in child abuse & sexual assault but not all of them & it's not fair to tar everyone with the same brush.)
My biggest issues with that lifestyle revolve around the children. I don't know if it's because I'm childfree or what, but it just irritates the heck out of me to hear people go on & on about how the most important thing in a marriage or in a family is procreation & having as many children as possible. I'd rather be in a childless but love-filled marriage than a marriage based on 'respect' & bursting with children. But, hey, not everyone feels that way.
The complete isolation of the children was another sore point. One family lived in a town consisting of almost entirely other polygamist families in the middle of nowhere (for security reasons, away from prying eyes). Their children were taught in church-run school. And all of the kids were completely devoted to living the lifestyle primarily, at least in my opinion, because it was all they knew.
All in all, it was an interesting programme. (And, hee! She made a Doctor Who joke. One of the families featured lived in what she thought would be a pretty cramped double-wide trailer. Upon entering, she remarked that it was rather like the TARDIS -- bigger on the inside. :P)
TLC is showing another part of this series, Geisha Girl, next Sunday at 10pm. I've already marked it down on my calendar. XD