Sister Wives: Kody the Idiot Divorces Meri to Marry Robyn

[mycatismyheadship]

ETA: I second the poster who said that Robyn is special because Kody's in love for the first time. I'm pretty sure that's it. And that's what makes the other wives jealous. Robyn per se does sound like a fun and calm person to be around. She's a cry-baby, I know, but she must have some good sides to her. It's the way Kody feels towards her that makes the other wives furious.

Yep. I loved this insight, and it has made me ponder the relationships. Most other assumptions tend to be that Meri is Kody's true love, Robyn is the hot new thing, and Janelle and Christine were for the purpose of children. That idea is also possible, but I can more see the notion of Robyn as first true love. As it leads in as I might see it unfolding, and what the situation might have been had plural marriage not been an option...

Meri was Kody's first love. Not first real, adult love, but that first love that we have all had and most of us, for one reason or another, lost. Some people marry their high school sweetheart, but most of us have had a somewhat significant relationship in our teens or early 20s that eventually ends, but stays with us in our hearts to some degree as our "first love" or "the one that got away." What if "the one that got away" never got away? See Kody/Meri.

Janelle, as many have observed, seems to be in a "best friend" role. Now, obviously she and Kody had for a while (maybe still do, who knows) a sexual element to the friendship, obviously they have a large number of kids together. But how romantic are they? In the more common world, I almost think their relationship would have remained platonic but very close (with jealous eyes from the wife), or else have turned into a friends-with-benefits situation if one or both were physically attracted. Either could have happened, but the expectation of their religion forced the marriage and romantic aspect. (Remember the Seinfeld episode when Jerry and Elaine wanted "this" and also "that" but feared it might lead to "the other")?

Christine is a tougher one. Kody at this point has his first "love" still there and his close friend who he might happen to bang, which is okay under their standards as Janelle is now a wife. Meri and Janelle are on the outs which probably affected both of their relationships with Kody, so he seeks comfort in someone else. As much as it pains me to say this as I do like Christine, maybe she was, at one point, what would have been in the mainstream world, a "side chick," to distract the man from his marital woes. (Also how he seems to treat her emotionally)

But now in polygamy land....... your young love, your best friend, and your side chick are now all your wives!!!! Cue 15 ish years of drama and eventually learning how to all live together.

And then.... Kody falls in real, adult love, for the first time.

It's interesting to think about: if every dalliance you had was still tied to you when you met the love of your life.

[Arete]

In the type of religious polygamy that the Browns practice, a man can only obtain the highest level of heaven if he has at least three wives. I bet that was the original purpose of adding Christine to the family; she was the third wife Kody needed to reach the highest level as outlined in the religious tradition they follow.

[DarkAnts]

I think that Christine is trying find her voice and be more assertive. She still needs to learn to be tactful and not passive aggressive. She has a long way to go but I understand her position. She needs to learn to be assertive for her children's needs and her own needs.

She has always been told to play the good submissive wife. She is breaking out of that box and I don't thimk Kody approves of the new independent Christine.

[DarkAnts]

In the type of religious polygamy that the Browns practice, a man can only obtain the highest level of heaven if he has at least three wives. I bet that was the original purpose of adding Christine to the family; she was the third wife Kody needed to reach the highest level as outlined in the religious tradition they follow.

Kody can choose which wives he brings up to the highest level of heaven. He is their ultimate judge, not God.

[BrownieMomma]

I think that Christine is trying find her voice and be more assertive. She still needs to learn to be tactful and not passive aggressive. She has a long way to go but I understand her position. She needs to learn to be assertive for her children's needs and her own needs.

She has always been told to play the good submissive wife. She is breaking out of that box and I don't thimk Kody approves of the new independent Christine.

You know, her intro line is something about wanting not just the man but the sister wives. Like they are all going to be besties or something.

I think Christine is at a point in her life and marriage where she is watching her cherished hopes and dreams die, and that is no fun for anyone to go through that. You have to rebuild your dreams and there is pain to work through.

I hope she comes to a good place about the realities of her life.

[BrownieMomma]

Kody can choose which wives he brings up to the highest level of heaven. He is their ultimate judge, not God.

If that is true, that is horrible. Oh gosh.

[DarkAnts]

If that is true, that is horrible. Oh gosh.

It's true in the main church too. Women can not get to the highest level of heaven alone. Their husbands have to bring them up there.

The main church believes in polygamy in heaven. The men become gods have to populate their own planes with spirit children. You need a lot of wives for this task.

I wish I was making this up Joseph Smith should have gone into Sci-fi writing.

[Rachel333]

It's sort of true that single women can't get to the CK, but it's a bit misleading in that men have to be married too, and mainstream LDS typically don't believe you have to be married in this life because you can always be sealed after you die.

I actually like that about the LDS compared to most other Christian churches. There's essentially no hell (it's almost impossible to get sent to Outer Darkness-even Hitler wouldn't make the cut), you get another chance for the highest level of heaven after you die, and even the third level of heaven is really nice and you can still be visited by people in higher kingdoms.

The church tends to be less forgiving than their theology, though.

[Firiel]

It's true in the main church too. Women can not get to the highest level of heaven alone. Their husbands have to bring them up there.

The main church believes in polygamy in heaven. The men become gods have to populate their own planes with spirit children. You need a lot of wives for this task.

I wish I was making this up Joseph Smith should have gone into Sci-fi writing.

He decided to write fantasy instead. :lol:

[Arete]

Kody can choose which wives he brings up to the highest level of heaven. He is their ultimate judge, not God.

Yes, Kody can decide which wives to take, but he still has to be married to at least three to uh..qualify..for the highest level of heaven. If he had stopped at 2 he would be forced to always fly commercial instead of first class in a manner of speaking.

And yeah, I think Christine wanted a family where she had as much of a spiritual bond with the other wives as she wanted to have with her husband. She worked toward that goal, and then Kody upends the family dynamic by adding Robyn, and adding her as the clear favorite.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

She's in another place because the special was about her so she had a separate interview. Just like Robyn last week. Btw how could they do a special on her and not mention the wet bar?

I think it was pretty clear that she was doing this for Robyn. It's like reciprocation for Robyn's offer to carry a baby for her.

But what is interesting is in the previews she is announcing this to Christine and Janelle (by themselves). Did they not get a say in who would get to marry Kody next? I think Kody should have just told her no. Why rock the boat?

Some other things from last nights shows: janelle still does real estate. She says she would never leave the family ever. She now wants to fix her relationship with Meri. But Meri isn't interested anymore. She says, "are janelle and I close? No. Will we ever be? Probably not." And that they've just learned to function together for the family. I find that so weird. I feel like they've never asked the other sister wives if they LOVE each other.

Also in two weeks: the sit down interview reunion.

[eh02]

I think it was pretty clear that she was doing this for Robyn. It's like reciprocation for Robyn's offer to carry a baby for her.

But what is interesting is in the previews she is announcing this to Christine and Janelle (by themselves). Did they not get a say in who would get to marry Kody next? I think Kody should have just told her no. Why rock the boat?

I thought that about Robyn, too. They kept mentioning Robyn offering the surrogacy, so I am assuming they will attempt to use that as some kind of explanation for the divorce situation.

But the second bit you mentioned was on my mind, too. Why would it really be Meri's decision on who gets to legally marry Kody next? Why Robyn? They made it look like Kody wasn't even a part of the decision. It doesn't seem right.

I think a lot of these women are used to seeing rather dysfunctional family dynamics. So their "ideal" isn't necessarily a perfect relationship with your spouse, IMO, and I think most of them resigned to being relatively unhappy in their relationship with Kody a long time ago.

I honestly don't know if they all even think they truly deserve to be happier. When they flashed back to that episode with Kody and Meri's anniversary, when he basically says the idea of Meri with another man is so disgusting he won't even think about it and refuses to even ATTEMPT to see her perspective or understand how she feels...uhg. It just made me remember how much I loathe Kody. He really has a lot of nerve to look his wife straight in the eye, seeing that she feels extremely distraught, and to respond to her like that. He is an awful man.

[CinderJana]

http://www.ibtimes.com/sister-wives-div ... yn-1817530

[Mama Mia]

http://www.ibtimes.com/sister-wives-divorce-truth-behind-meris-decision-allow-kody-marry-robyn-1817530

Umm..yea...that article is stating that things happened on last nights episode that absolutely did not happen. Seriously, do these reporters ever bother to do ANY work at all anymore? Like even watch the episode they are talking about? WTF

[Cleopatra7]

Yep. I loved this insight, and it has made me ponder the relationships. Most other assumptions tend to be that Meri is Kody's true love, Robyn is the hot new thing, and Janelle and Christine were for the purpose of children. That idea is also possible, but I can more see the notion of Robyn as first true love. As it leads in as I might see it unfolding, and what the situation might have been had plural marriage not been an option...

Meri was Kody's first love. Not first real, adult love, but that first love that we have all had and most of us, for one reason or another, lost. Some people marry their high school sweetheart, but most of us have had a somewhat significant relationship in our teens or early 20s that eventually ends, but stays with us in our hearts to some degree as our "first love" or "the one that got away." What if "the one that got away" never got away? See Kody/Meri.

Janelle, as many have observed, seems to be in a "best friend" role. Now, obviously she and Kody had for a while (maybe still do, who knows) a sexual element to the friendship, obviously they have a large number of kids together. But how romantic are they? In the more common world, I almost think their relationship would have remained platonic but very close (with jealous eyes from the wife), or else have turned into a friends-with-benefits situation if one or both were physically attracted. Either could have happened, but the expectation of their religion forced the marriage and romantic aspect. (Remember the Seinfeld episode when Jerry and Elaine wanted "this" and also "that" but feared it might lead to "the other")?

Christine is a tougher one. Kody at this point has his first "love" still there and his close friend who he might happen to bang, which is okay under their standards as Janelle is now a wife. Meri and Janelle are on the outs which probably affected both of their relationships with Kody, so he seeks comfort in someone else. As much as it pains me to say this as I do like Christine, maybe she was, at one point, what would have been in the mainstream world, a "side chick," to distract the man from his marital woes. (Also how he seems to treat her emotionally)

But now in polygamy land....... your young love, your best friend, and your side chick are now all your wives!!!! Cue 15 ish years of drama and eventually learning how to all live together.

And then.... Kody falls in real, adult love, for the first time.

It's interesting to think about: if every dalliance you had was still tied to you when you met the love of your life.

This is a really interesting theory. Mormons in general are encouraged to marry young, like the IFB, so it could be that both Kody and Meri decided to marry simply because they were the first people they had feelings for and assumed that that was a good enough reason to get married. If your theory is correct, then it would seem that Kody simply married all of the women he sort of liked and brought them into the fold. This worked well enough until Robyn came along, and now Kody is in "adult love" and would prefer to just be monogamous with her, but he has all of these other wives and children that he has obligations for. It's sort of like the "don't give pieces of your heart" away philosophy as applied to polygamy, where Kody has to marry any semi-interesting woman he comes in contact with to retain his spiritual "purity."

A poster on the Cynical Jinx blog posited that the appeal for the women in polygamy is that it enables them to have a "hot guy" who ordinarily wouldn't pay attention to them even if it means having to share him. Kody was pretty good looking in her younger days and I could see why Meri, Janelle, and Christine would be attracted to him on a purely shallow level (I think he could still look good if he would get an age-appropriate haircut, but that's another story). In addition to the religious pressures they feel to make polygamy work, perhaps the first three wives feel like they can't aspire to anything better than Kody, so there's no point in leaving.

Lastly, it's becoming more obvious to me that these so-called "sister wives" are more like four women who have nothing in common other than the fact that their kids (minus Robyn's kids from her first marriage) all have the same father. Meri and Janelle have admitted that they aren't close and Christine seems to just "be there" most of the time. There's nothing particularly "sisterly" about their relationships, unless it's in the sense of females bonded by family ties who would otherwise never have anything to do with each other.

[Natalie22]

She's in another place because the special was about her so she had a separate interview. Just like Robyn last week. Btw how could they do a special on her and not mention the wet bar?

I think it was pretty clear that she was doing this for Robyn. It's like reciprocation for Robyn's offer to carry a baby for her.

But what is interesting is in the previews she is announcing this to Christine and Janelle (by themselves). Did they not get a say in who would get to marry Kody next? I think Kody should have just told her no. Why rock the boat?

Some other things from last nights shows: janelle still does real estate. She says she would never leave the family ever. She now wants to fix her relationship with Meri. But Meri isn't interested anymore. She says, "are janelle and I close? No. Will we ever be? Probably not." And that they've just learned to function together for the family. I find that so weird. I feel like they've never asked the other sister wives if they LOVE each other.

Also in two weeks: the sit down interview reunion.

Janelle didn't say Meri wasn't interested, just that she hadn't asked yet and she was afraid that she wouldn't be interested. Meri was talking about what she imagined her relationship to be like with Janelle before Janelle married Kody. Meri probably imagined something similar to her and Robyn's relationship. I think Meri could still be interested in improving their relationship, but also be realistic about how close they could become. I really hope those two are able to work through some of their past issues. I think it would make the family feel much more stable and be good for Meri and Janelle individually.

[MichellezBangz]

For people living an "alternative lifestyle," it is amazing how judgmental and closed minded they are.

Exactly. I doubt they support marriage equality for everyone yet they're so persecuted. :roll:

[Mama Mia]

Exactly. I doubt they support marriage equality for everyone yet they're so persecuted. :roll:

They were asked by the anthropology students what their response would be of one of their children wanted to be in a relationship with someone of the same sex. They were very uncomfortable discussing the sexuality issues in general. But did say they understood that with that many children they had a good chance of having a child who was homosexual. They said they would welcome and love their child and their partner. The important thing to them was that sex remained within marriage -- whoever they decided to marry. I thought that was an interesting response.

I'm not quoting verbatim, but that was what I took from it.

[Natalie22]

They were asked by the anthropology students what their response would be of one of their children wanted to be in a relationship with someone of the same sex. They were very uncomfortable discussing the sexuality issues in general. But did say they understood that with that many children they had a good chance of having a child who was homosexual. They said they would welcome and love their child and their partner. The important thing to them was that sex remained within marriage -- whoever they decided to marry. I thought that was an interesting response.

I'm not quoting verbatim, but that was what I took from it.

I think they've also said in a past season that they do support same sex marriage, partially because they see it as hypocritical to demand their freedom to practice marriage the way they believe it should be while denying others the same.

[MichellezBangz]

Kody was pretty good looking in her younger days

:cracking-up:

[MichellezBangz]

I think they've also said in a past season that they do support same sex marriage, partially because they see it as hypocritical to demand their freedom to practice marriage the way they believe it should be while denying others the same.

Okay, but I'm still side-eyeing them.

[DefrauderDaughter]

It's sort of true that single women can't get to the CK, but it's a bit misleading in that men have to be married too, and mainstream LDS typically don't believe you have to be married in this life because you can always be sealed after you die.

I actually like that about the LDS compared to most other Christian churches. There's essentially no hell (it's almost impossible to get sent to Outer Darkness-even Hitler wouldn't make the cut), you get another chance for the highest level of heaven after you die, and even the third level of heaven is really nice and you can still be visited by people in higher kingdoms.

The church tends to be less forgiving than their theology, though.

Is this what draws people into LDS (aside from being born into the religion)? I know that for myself, I was raised in a conservative Church of Christ household and the cofC is very fire and brimstone and has a lot of beliefs similar to that of the fundamental Baptist church (including the wine thing-ugh) and because of that, I was out of there as soon as possible. I know that something like LDS would appeal to me since it's so hard to go to hell, as opposed to how I was raised, where its so easy.

I could see why the female children especially would want to leave the UAB sect and just be LDS, like Madison is doing. UAB is incredibly male-driven to the point that the men determine your final destiny-not God.

One thing I can say for the Brown's show is that I like that they're showing their children's descent from UAB, no matter where they end up religiously. The Duggars wouldn't do that, nor do they even present it as even a possibility for their children.

[Cleopatra7]

Is this what draws people into LDS (aside from being born into the religion)? I know that for myself, I was raised in a conservative Church of Christ household and the cofC is very fire and brimstone and has a lot of beliefs similar to that of the fundamental Baptist church (including the wine thing-ugh) and because of that, I was out of there as soon as possible. I know that something like LDS would appeal to me since it's so hard to go to hell, as opposed to how I was raised, where its so easy.

I could see why the female children especially would want to leave the UAB sect and just be LDS, like Madison is doing. UAB is incredibly male-driven to the point that the men determine your final destiny-not God.

One thing I can say for the Brown's show is that I like that they're showing their children's descent from UAB, no matter where they end up religiously. The Duggars wouldn't do that, nor do they even present it as even a possibility for their children.

One question I have is just how mainstream the Browns really are. Based on the show, you'd think they were mainstream evangelicals who just happen to define "traditional marriage" to mean polygamy. But that politicsruprinciple tumblr shows that the Brown adults all have ties to the more hardcore polygamist sects through their tangled family trees even if they don't live that way themselves. But unlike the Duggars, the Browns follow pop culture and believe in bricks and mortar schools. I get the impression that the Brown adults don't really approve of same sex relations but tactically realize that it would be hypocritical for them to be against it, given that polygamy is more unpopular than gay marriage.

[DefrauderDaughter]

Oh, I don't think for a second that they support marriage equality. LDS doesn't support it and does what most denominations do and says something along the lines of "we love the sinner but hate the sin." which is most definitely not supportive of the LGBTQ+ movement. If I'm not mistaken, UAB is even more conservative than LDS and so I highly doubt they support it. I just they that the Browns realize that going on TV and stating that they don't support it would be highly hypocritical. If you'll notice, when they complain about the things polygamists go through, those are some of the same things that LGBTQ+ people go through.

[fabkiwi06]

The biggest redeeming quality about the Browns is that they are supportive of their kids not living the exact same lifestyle. Some of those older teens seem to be pretty smart. Even the one who wants to be a sisterwife when she grows up wants to have a career and independence without sacrificing that.

If Kody wasn't such a douchenozzle and those wives weren't so whiny, they wouldn't be so bad. There is a massive difference between what 5 consensual adults are doing and being forced in to a FLDS Plural marriage.