“Sister Wives” is a Feminist Documentary
The TLC series masquerades as a reality show
Sister Wives is a groundbreaking documentary tracing the path of the liberation for a group of women married to the same miserable man. The TLC reality show became the unintentional poster child for the plight of women in heterosexual relationships the world over.
In the earlier seasons, viewers watch a group of squeaky clean fundamentalist Mormons (aka FLDS) portray a carefully crafted view of plural marriage. The adults did not hide their initial goal of using the reality show as a vehicle to elevate the image of polygamy from “backwater Utah” to the more sympathetic portrayal of modern folks simply opting for an alternative lifestyle.
Those early years painted a wholesome image of five adults united to raise their brood of 18 children.
Sister Wives fed into the public’s voyeuristic kink like a real-life Truman Show. The cast’s struggles were interesting and weirdly familiar despite their plurality. And that allowed the show to capture a diverse audience from the deeply religious to far-left progressives.
The program pretends to be a reality show, but it might be more accurate to say it is a show about reality — up close and brutal.
