A Feminist Needle in a Polygamous Haystack: An Oppositional Reading of 'Big Love'

• In Event: Beyond Queer: Intersex, Transgender and Non-Heteronormative Visions of Human Bodies and Relationships

Abstract

The HBO drama, “Big Love,” depicts the lives of three sister-wives and their husband against the background of a society critical of polygamy, and in contrast to a polygamous cult where women (and young girls) are married against their will. Beneath the obvious social stigma attached to polygamy and polygamous cults, especially with the news accounts of sexual exploitations of young girls, “Big Love” provides an admittedly glossy and interesting exploration of relationship among adult women both in relation to and independent of their mutual husband. Although the show is set against a background of religious and social conservatism, this paper explores the dynamics that allow for the creation of an unconventional but healthy relationship among three sister-wives. Specifically, the paper notes the irony of such an unlikely site for representation of a positive, non-normative relationship among women.

Author

• Matthew J. Sobnosky, Hofstra University