Sister Wives’ Kody Brown’s bringing down plural marriage. The world’s most famous polygamist is showcasing Brown family dysfunction in season 18.
Kody Brown was the king of polygamy when he dominated the globe, but the Sister Wives actor lost control. He is currently dismantling the entire plural marriage system as a result of his hubris. He sought to persuade viewers that polygamy was beneficial when he first started participating on the TV show. Kody wanted to make something that belonged to a “fringe” society more mainstream. Love, according to Kody, should be “multiplied, not divided.” However, season 18 has such little romantic content. Plural marriage appears dreadful, and Kody is largely to blame for the unsettling dynamics in the Brown family.
Reality TV show star Kody could have kept his vows to Meri, Janelle and Christine Brown – not just Robyn Brown. By neglecting three of his wives, the Sister Wives season 18 star abused his patriarchal power. Polygamy’s poster boy dropped the ball, definitively proving that plural marriage is dead wrong and harmful. The flaws of an antiquated system, where the emotional needs of women are never, ever respected, were magnified onscreen. It wasn’t a pretty picture. How can anyone believe in plural marriage now?
Christine Was Right To Leave Kody
In plural marriages, women are supposed to come to terms with, “sacred loneliness.” In other words, they’re supposed to suffer silently in order to keep a polygamous family intact. At some point, Christine couldn’t take it anymore. Always the most forthright of the bunch, Christine has trouble hiding her emotions. When Kody’s neglect of Christine got really extreme, she bailed out. She faced the fact that nothing would ever change.
The sincere, courageous, and inspirational Christine is now trying to become friends with her ex rather than wishing for his death in season 18. That’s a responsible strategy, but Kody detects betrayal everywhere. He believes Christine is engaged in some sort of game. He has no faith in anyone, much like a tyrant whose hold on power is waning.
Christine, who at least stated the truth, is no longer with him. Off-screen, he has no one left but Robyn, who is renowned for minimizing reality. Robyn appears to occasionally keep Kody content by telling him lies and supporting his delusions. His polygamous kingdom is dying and crumbling in Sister Wives season 18. Robyn’s still fiddling while Rome burns i.e. putting on an act onscreen. However, offscreen, she’s taking off her armor. She’s shedding her persona and showing fans who she really is. Robyn hates polygamy just as much as Meri, Janelle and Christine do, and she’s not hiding it anymore.
Plural Marriage Makes Women Miserable
Men who may not know how to use power in a conscious and compassionate manner are given power through polygamy. Some develop into less than kind tyrants. Kody is that way. Kody has acted cruelly toward his less beloved marriages while disguising himself as a Christian crusader. His “plural monogamy” talk, which enables him to sleep exclusively with Robyn while maintaining the appearance that he has other partners, is now tricking his ex-girlfriends into thinking he still has multiple partners.
Dictatorships are bad. They just aren’t democratic. Polygamy’s like a tiny dictatorship, and when women rebel, it doesn’t always go their way. Meri, lonely because Kody loves Robyn, not her, tried to find some type of freedom, happiness and meaning. She ended up humiliated, after being catfished by a woman posing as a man.
Did she deserve the ridicule she received? Was she expected to go on without experiencing love for the rest of her life? Although it technically constituted infidelity and had a disastrous outcome, wasn’t she merely looking for happiness? Her heart ached as she felt trapped in a spiritual relationship that provided her with zero spiritual or other fulfillment.
Meri made an effort to make things better by infusing her life with passion. Kody treated her like a jezebel after that. On each of her LuLaRoe shirts, he might as well have sewed a scarlet letter. He had nothing to offer her in the meanwhile. The reason polygamy is bad is because of situations like this.
Kody the dictator can choose to favor any wife he wants. He can be fickle, or commit to just one woman. He can leave the others whistling in the wind. He can spend more money on one wife than anot her, and give more attention to his favorite’s kids. Like a tyrant, he can create an inner circle and excommunicate anyone who doesn’t measure up to whatever ideals or desires he has at any given moment.
Kody never forgave Sister Wives’ Meri Brown, even though she had valid reasons for trying to connect with someone else. He punished Meri in many cruel ways. While he did, she may have felt that God would punish her if she left the plural marriage. So often, polygamy puts women in no-win situations. Meri’s a prime example.
In a plural marriage, the man does whatever he wants, and the women can’t make mistakes. If they do, they may lose any standing that they have in polygamous families. In that sense, they can’t be fully human. God’s supposed to forgive, but there’s no guarantee that a patriarch in a plural marriage will show mercy.
Kody’s changed, growing harsher over time. In Viva La Vida, Chris Martin plays the tyrant, singing, “People couldn’t believe what I’d become.” In Sister Wives season 18, his wives (even Robyn) just doesn’t know who he is anymore. His love for Robyn corrupted him. Kody stopped trying with the other women, and he’d vowed to be their husband too. Holding up his patriarch status like a shield, he’s on the defensive. He’s never wrong. He’s never really sorry.
Plural Marriage Makes Men Miserable
In Viva La Vida, Chris also sings, “I know St. Peter won’t call my name.” He’s saying that he probably won’t make it to Heaven. The song’s tyrant suspects that he’s sinned too much. Does Kody ever think, “I failed Meri, Janelle, and Christine? I failed my faith” ? He should, but maybe he doesn’t.
In season 18, his exes, except Christine, aren’t in the best situations. Janelle has no money, according to her. That’s very serious, and one of the reasons why is because she did what Kody wanted. She obeyed the patriarch by sinking her money into the doomed Coyote Pass project. Meri’s feeling so isolated from the family, and describing herself as a, “third wheel.” This stuff is grim. It’s not minor in any way. Does Kody ever say he’s sorry? No, he doesn’t. Instead, he blames the women, brainwashed by patriarchal thinking that makes him believe he’s always right. The woman can’t be right – only the man can think rationally!
It’s Not Just The Brown Family… Polygamy Is Harmful Everywhere
Polygamy is a system that must be abolished. If there’s any good that can come out of Kody’s non-Robyn spouses going through all this misery and suffering, it’s that they could be doing something to put an end to this sexist tradition. While everyone should adhere to their personal faith or reject it if it doesn’t make sense to them, polygamy is outside the realm of religion. It’s a practice that devalues women, and sometimes it also devalues men. The crown-wearing head is hefty. If the patriarch gives up on trying to appease everyone, he will no longer be a kind leader. Another loser is the man.
However, plural marriage hurts women the most. According to a scientific study published in the ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, it’s a “very common experience that discriminative behaviour of the husbands and unequal treatment with their wives causes several mental health issues in polygamous families. These are jealousy, poor marital satisfaction, unhealthy competition, lack of trust, and many other mental health problems.”
Those phrases from the psychiatric journal ring so true as Sister Wives season 18 progresses. Everyone deserves happiness, and no one is happy. The largest issue is Kody’s unwillingness to accept responsibility for how he handled Meri, Janelle, and Christine. He could apologize even if the family as a whole has disbanded rather than continuing to act as if nothing has ever gone wrong. It’s past time for an apology, and it wouldn’t hurt. He does have children with his ex-wives, after all. They are his children’s mothers. He might understand that they are his equals one day.
King Kody, a star of Sister Wives season 18, is contributing to the demise of polygamy by harming the “image” of plural marriage. He clearly no longer even has that belief, but he might not wish to be the “destroyer.” Sometimes, fate steps in and places people in situations they never would have imagined.