Polygamy’s Yuck Factor

Ok, I was raised in polygamy. Once I realized that my father took turns visiting the various women who lived in our compound, I realized that I didn’t like polygamy very much. I wanted my mother and I to have him all to ourselves. But I got used to the idea, and tried to contain my selfishness—especially since my mother didn’t seem to mind that he disappeared into Aunt Emma’s bedroom across the hall. When I saw my grown sisters enter plural marriages, I didn’t like it very much but I got used to the idea. I found I didn’t love my sisters any less, although I did worry about them more. But I will never get used to what’s being perpetrated in the picture of Warren Jeffs holding a twelve year old girl in his arms and kissing her like a bride about to be carried over a threshold. Yuck! Child porn! Arrest that man! Oh, that’s right, he’s already in prison, for helping another man do essentially the same thing. Well, then, slap another sentence on him, and put him in the part of prison where they really despise child abusers. And while we’re at it, let’s arrest all of them, those cradle-robbers, those exploiters of women and children, those defrauders of welfare and other government programs. While we’re focused, let’s round up the deadbeat dads of polygamy. Make sure they provide financial support for the children with matching DNA. Garnish their checks and attach their wages and get those kids what they need—food, clothing, medical care, and most important, adequate education. (And let’s do the same for all the other kids in the world while we’re at it.)

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(Image credit: Archives)

By Dorothy Allred Solomon

published 28 May 2008

Ok, I was raised in polygamy. Once I realized that my father took turns visiting the various women who lived in our compound, I realized that I didn't like polygamy very much. I wanted my mother and I to have him all to ourselves. But I got used to the idea, and tried to contain my selfishness—especially since my mother didn't seem to mind that he disappeared into Aunt Emma's bedroom across the hall. When I saw my grown sisters enter plural marriages, I didn't like it very much but I got used to the idea. I found I didn't love my sisters any less, although I did worry about them more.

But I will never get used to what's being perpetrated in the picture of Warren Jeffs holding a twelve year old girl in his arms and kissing her like a bride about to be carried over a threshold. Yuck! Child porn! Arrest that man! Oh, that's right, he's already in prison, for helping another man do essentially the same thing. Well, then, slap another sentence on him, and put him in the part of prison where they really despise child abusers. And while we're at it, let's arrest all of them, those cradle-robbers, those exploiters of women and children, those defrauders of welfare and other government programs. While we're focused, let's round up the deadbeat dads of polygamy. Make sure they provide financial support for the children with matching DNA. Garnish their checks and attach their wages and get those kids what they need—food, clothing, medical care, and most important, adequate education. (And let's do the same for all the other kids in the world while we're at it.)

The statement made by Azar Nafisi in her penetrating memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran "What bothers us most, of course," [she said] "is not just the utter helplessness of Lolita, but the fact that Humbert robs her of her childhood." Warren Jeffs has robbed that girl and many others of childhood, of innocence.