Kody Brown and his four wives once claimed they signed up for a reality show so that the world could better understand polygamy. Meri Brown, Christine Brown, Janelle Brown, and Robyn Brown once claimed that they wanted people to realize that their alternative lifestyle was happy. Throughout several seasons of Sister wives, fans have learned that the Brown family is anything but happy together. The Browns have effectively taught their viewers that polygamy is more about sacrifice than collaborative living, fans insist.
The Brown family has shown the world that jealousy is a serious problem.
Kody has been married to his first three wives for 30, 27, and 26 years, respectively. He married his fourth wife, Robyn, in 2010. Meri, Janelle, and Christine, in particular, should have had a lot of practice when it comes to plural life, but both Christine and Meri seemed to struggle mightily with jealousy. Robyn has apparently struggled with the same emotion.
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Janelle and Robyn have suggested that polygamy has to do with sacrifice, and Janelle admitted, in a revealing episode, that the first 20 years of their marriage were not particularly happy. If the Brown family hoped to show viewers that their marriage was collaborative and comfortable, they managed to do the exact opposite.
There is a serious power imbalance in polygamous families.
The Browns once insisted that all decisions must be made as a family, but in the past two seasons of the show, fans have realized that the Browns may not function that way. The family’s move from Las Vegas to Flagstaff, Arizona, and everything that has happened since the move, seems to highlight a severe power imbalance.
Fans strongly believe that Kody bullied at least two of his wives into making a move to appease his fourth and now-legal wife. Flagstaff, where the family currently resides, fits in perfectly with Robyn’s plans for his oldest son, Dayton Brown, but appeared to negatively impact others. Why did they move then? Apparently, because Kody wanted to do it.
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Kristyn Decker, who is directly related to Christine, has spoken out against polygamy, claiming that the entire practice is riddled with abuse and is based on a complete imbalance of power. Decker herself left polygamy. Now she has spent years speaking out against the practice and has dropped a few tidbits about the Brown family, in particular for Radar online.
Wives are not friends.
During the first season of Sister wivesThe Browns repeatedly stated that they worked as a single large, happy family. The wives even suggested that their friendship with each other was as important as their individual relationships with their shared husband. Many seasons later, and that is clearly not the case.
The family book, Becoming sister sistersHe even highlighted the tension that exists within the family. Janelle and Meri could hardly bear to be in the same room together, and Christine has suggested that Meri makes her uncomfortable. Christine and Robyn also seemed to start an icy relationship, and little has been done to strengthen that friendship. The idea of sharing a large house again almost sent Christine into an epic crisis.
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Decker has suggested that Brown’s wives were never really friends, and friendship between sister wives is incredibly rare within sects that practice plural marriage. At best, it seems that some of the wives have a lukewarm understanding. In the worst case, they are not supported.
