When conservatives opposed to same-sex marriage argued that sanctioning it was the first step in a slippery slope that could lead to polygamy, I thought they were just nuts. Now, it seems like they knew something I didn't know -- like HBO's spring 2006 programming lineup.
Yes, tomorrow night (at 9 on Movie Central in Western Canada, and 10 on the Movie Network in the East), HBO will premiere Big Love, its new dramatic series. Big Love stars Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Chloe Sevigny, and it's about the day-to-day struggles of a modern, and polygamous, family. In virtually every respect, the Henricksons, as portrayed on the show, are typical of the American middle class. They drive SUVs, they watch TV, they talk on their cellphones, eat fast food and order things from the Home Shopping Network. Except that every morning when Bill walks out the door to go to work, he could be walking out one of three front doors, and kissing one of his three wives goodbye.
Too weird to mean anything? I'm not certain.
At this juncture, it might be helpful to recall that the people at HBO seem to have some weird third eye thing into the zeitgeist. Remember when they introduced Sex and the City, how it was also the moment that everything was about single girls in Manolos drinking their Cosmopolitans and talking about men?
When they launched The Sopranos, we were all suddenly busy listening to the Rat Pack, buying pinky rings , playing five-card stud and taking the red eye to Vegas.
And guess what -- Jeanne Tripplehorn, the "Boss Wife" on Big Love, agrees with me. "When I got the script, you know, I just laughed," she said in a telephone interview. "But the thing is, this really is a real way of life for a lot of people." Moreover, according to Tripplehorn, who prepared for her role by researching the "poly" lifestyle (we conventional couples are "diads," by the way), "the numbers suggest that this progressive kind of polygamy is on the rise."
Could that actually be possible? I did a little research of my own. On http://www.polygamy.com, Adolph, Mary and Megan, who read the Bible daily, are seeking "a Christian lady with a kind spirit, who is levelheaded and has a positive attitude toward the Lord" to be their new "sister wife." Phew As I suspected, this is just a fringe thing.
But then I came across Arlene and her husband, who are looking for an "open-minded, loving, caring sister wife."
"We both gave it careful thought and reviewed all info concerning our desired lifestyle, and are prepared to share our love with a serious female," writes Arlene, who describes herself and her 28-year-old husband as financially secure. "By the way," she adds, "we're located in NYC."
Could Big Love be on to something big? Could the behaviour that got Mormon founder Joseph Smith lynched a century ago (claiming that "God is a polygamist," Smith reputedly widowed 48 wives, a third of them teenagers) be on its way to becoming another lifestyle choice?
Here in Canada, the debate is alive and well. Last year, Status of Women Canada issued a call with the Justice Department for proposals regarding polygamy. The scuttlebutt is that they did so out of concern not only that the polygamists in Bountiful, B.C., might be successful with a Charter challenge, but also to address fears that same-sex marriage might have opened the way to other non-traditional forms of union.
Of the four reports, the one that got all the ink came from Queen's University professors Martha Bailey, Beverley Baines and Bita Amani, who came to the unanticipated conclusion that polygamy as an offence should be removed from the Criminal Code.
"Why criminalize the behaviour?" Bailey said to the press. While she and her colleagues were not endorsing polygamy, she pointed out, "We don't criminalize adultery. In light of the fact that we have a fairly permissive society . . . why are we singling out that particular form of behaviour for criminalization?"
Naturally the right-wing media are having a field day. "As you may know, Canada has legalized gay marriage and now a new study for the federal Justice Department in Ottawa says polygamy should be legalized as well," Bill O'Reilly gloated, imprecisely. "Who told you this was going to happen? Who?"
Beyond the irritation of conservative pundits I-told-you-so's, the most annoying thing about this story is that the most prescient and insightful people in North America seem to all work not in public policy, but at HBO.
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