Backup Wives

Polygamists have been in the news a lot over the past year after the première of TLC’s ‘Sister Wives’, a show that follows a family of polygamists while they add a new wife and her children to the family. Most people in the western world have the same feelings towards polygamy, the thought of one man with multiple wives seems wrong and unnatural to most of us. It is actually illegal in almost all states including Utah where the biggest populations of American polygamists live. However polygamy is legal in around 50 countries world wide, most of them being African or Muslim. I think the major problem with polygamy is that people just don’t know how to define it. Is it a religion or a cult? It can easily be defined as a cult because it’s extremely different then the norm and completely immoral in our culture. The idea of polygamy is offensive to feminists and in a lot of cases the relationships are abusive. Not to mention how far back it sets women’s rights! What gives the men rights to have multiple wives, leaving women unequal and jealous. Back to the TLC show, it really makes polygamy out to be harmless and everyone is just one big happy family with everyday problems. They are choosing that lifestyle with their own free will, but that’s not the case with a lot of polygamists and being forced into a plural marriage is common in many countries. So we all know that’s not right and shows how poorly women all over the world are being treated, but what if you chose to be in a polygamist relationship? Some would say it’s the same as choosing to be in a same sex marriage, just a different lifestyle. You can probably see the controversy over the topic and I don’t think it polygamy will be legal in Canada anytime soon.