Every Man's Fantasy? - Two television shows explore nontraditional relationships

-- Delving into communities outside the mainstream, two new television shows tackle an unlikely group: polygamists. The actual definition of polygamy is marriage to more than one spouse at a time; the two forms of polygamy are polygyny (marriage of multiple women to one man) and polyandry (marriage of multiple men to one woman). In America, polygamy is as a synonym for polygyny, and the practice of polygamy is most closely associated with Mormonism. --

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-- It's time to show a complex and sympathetic alternative relationship. Big Love illustrates how relatively "normal" the lives of its characters are; I'm curious to see if the American public can root for them. I just wish the family weren't so, well, traditional. As Mormon polygamists, they carry a legacy of patriarchal inequality, coerced marriages to underage girls, non-consensual pregnancies, and abuse. That doesn't describe all Mormon polygamists, but the history is there, as the story line constantly reminds us. Why can't Bill and his wives live in suburban New Jersey and be Episcopalians?

I'd be much more encouraged about its radical potential if the show were about polyamory, a newer concept with no religious affiliation. Polyamory focuses on multiple committed loving and sexual relationships (that may or may not include marriage), allows for multi-gendered partner configurations, and usually involves all partners being non-monogamous (not just the men). It emphasizes honesty and communication. --