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dec 30
2008

Polygamy and Its Discontents

Today's episode of the I'm Just Sayin Show: Polygamy and The Girls Next Door. It's probably my favorite so far -- Alisa, who is a practicing Mormon, tells her story about living next to a polygamist compound. This personal anecdote sits next to a discussion of The Girls Next Door, a clearly polygamist situation that no one has ever legally questioned. Toward the end, Alisa discusses the codes for strict religious sects, but then Jackie mentions how those codes seem similar to the lives of playmates. What I love about this episode is that it mixes narrative and criticism, personal and political.

3 comments

(To be clear, Alisa isn't a polygamist advocate -- she's just interested in how Mormon's get portrayed. She has, for instance, been disturbed by their characterization after Prop 8 passed in California. I'll see if she'll drop a comment on the show about it.)

posted by Rex at 1:17 PM on December 30, 2008

Well to be etymologically correct, "polygamy" simply means many marriages (not necessarily all at once)-- so anyone who has been married and divorced and re-married (or who was widowed and remarried) is a polygamist (like yours truly).

Polygany with an "n" refers to multiple marriages at the same time...however, polygamy with an "m" has taken cultural precedent here and is now synonymous with "polygany."

posted by alisa at 1:29 PM on December 30, 2008

damn you Rex, the more I watch this show the less I hate it, of course if Alisa wasn't on there at all I would still hate it just as much. Keep up the good work I suppose, sigh.

posted by Dik at 1:51 PM on December 30, 2008




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