Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaa....

(Wipe tears)

This TV show, Big Love is a few years old but I'm just watching it now on iTunes. Its main character is a big successful man who grew up on a polygamists' camp with a prophet rather like Warren Jeffs, only smarter and more tolerable. The man is thrown out to the streets at age 14, and many years later has become a successful home-improvement store owner.

He is a polygamist only because his original wife had cancer, and the woman who nursed her happened to be the daughter of the big Prophet currently ruling the creepy polygamist compound. She enlightens him to the goodness of the Principle of multiple wives. He buys it, and marries her. (The first wife, who recovers, agrees to it too, mainly because her husband really, really wants it.) At the same time, he also gets a big investment/loan for the store from the Prophet father -- which should clue you in to what a hypocrite he is.

Later he acquires a 3rd wife. He owns 3 houses in a row in the suburbs. The neighbors don't know he is married to all 3 women who live in the houses.
***

If people want to live in plural marriages, let them! Let's amend the laws so they can. And then let them spend their lives in court suing each other for child support, alimony, and litigate horrible property settlements that must become gordian knots.

If the really fringe people didn't have to hide on big compounds to conceal their multiple spouses, then any underage marriages would probably be easier to detect by the rest of the town/authorities -- and could be ended faster.

Actually, I could respect a plural marriage if it were embarked upon with deep solemnity, and if it included both multiple husbands as well as wives. I don't go for that domination by the husband crap. In the show Caprica some of the characters are in plural marriages of this kind, with several husbands and several wives all as one unit. They also are religious oddballs, in the story. But it was interesting.