TV's sexist portrayal of polygamy

Written by Tashi from the blog Tashi's TV on 10 Mar 2015
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Enough! I've had it with TV's prejudiced portrayal of women in relation to polygamy and something needs to be done about it pronto.

First we had five seasons of Big Love in which three woman had to suffer sharing Bill Paxton, then there was TLC's very troubling Sister Wives in which four women are married to a man who's described as a "patriarch" while they're labelled as "sisters" and now we've got e.tv's new Umlilo in which two wives have to deal with the arrival of a potential third wife.

I have no problem with polygamy as a concept but I do have a huge problem with the overall portrayal of it on TV because there are no shows about women in relationships with more than one man which makes things unbelievably sexist.

The situation reinforces the idea that it's fine for men to have polygamous relationships but that women aren't "allowed" them or that they wouldn't even think about them.

Where are the series about women with more than one husband or lover? Why isn't there a single show that covers things from this perspective?!

Of course it isn't only not happening on TV - it isn't happening anywhere in popular culture. Where are the articles about it on the front cover of Cosmo - a magazine specifically for women? Where are the movies about it?!

We're in the 21st century - things need to change.

Shows in this post: Big Love, Umlilo

Channels in this post: TLC Entertainment, e.tv

3 Comments

makisto
10 Mar 2015 10:45

Tashi, I've also had issues with polygamy the same issues you are having about how it's portrayed on TV. It's not just on TV, even in real life too. I think as society, we as men have been elevated to a status of a goddess of some sort. If a woman has more than one man, she's labeled and called names and it is women who would call her names. If I as a man have more than one women, whether as a polygamist or in the sly, I'm seen as theee man and powerful, both women and men elevate me to a "boss" status and fancy words such as "cassanova" are used to describe be as opposed to the demeaning words like "slut" etc. If we wanna change this, we have to study with semantics and restructure our language and meaning. I'm all pro-feminist and all. However, I think sometimes, women instead of sticking together to elevate each other, they bring each other down with a exception of the very few of course. So, I can tell you right now, should a gutsy show be developed where a man has two husbands, social stereotypes will slender the show. I'm not even sure if our laws allow a woman to. Marry two or more husbands. So this is a very interesting topic.

RONDA
10 Mar 2015 12:16

I think its coz in real life a woman would never marry 2 or more husbands and the men be as supportive of the relationship as woman are to one man. It is acceptable in society for a man to marry more than one woman

greenfizzpops
22 Apr 2015 07:17

Well, patriarchal polygny (the kind of polygamy we typically see on South African television) _is_ sexist by definition. If you're interested in shows about women in relationships with more than one man, then it is probably more fruitfull to look for shows about polyamory instead, seeing as how polyamory is more egalitarian than patriarchal polygyny. FYI : Polyamory is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved. I've seen very little polyamory depicted on South African television screens, but the shows and movies do exist. For instance Showtime in the USA screened two seasons of a show called "Polyamory:Married and Dating".

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