The Stepford Polygs

[Honeycombe8]

I was watching (again) the movie "The Stepford Wives" on TV recently, and it struck me how much the Stepford Wives reminded me of the polyg wives I saw on Larry King recently.

The polyg women were robotic, speaking in monotone, halting voices. They all had an eerily similar sounding voice. They all dressed similarly, with only faint coloring of the dresses being different. They were prim and proper...so much the lady. Everyone's hair was neat as a pin, all similarly styled.

Near the end of the movie, Katherine Ross says to the analyst she has gone to see outside of Stepford, that she has this sense that one day soon, there will be someone in her house that will look like her (Ross), and sound like her, but it won't be her. It would be like a robot acting like her.

That's what these polyg women remind me of. Some warped man's vision of what a woman should dress like, should talk like, should be like. But they're almost not real people at all. They are shadows of the people they would have been, if they hadn't been raised in that community.

There was only one plus that I saw. I noticed that none of the women I saw was overweight. And more than a few were thin. Unusual for women, wouldn't you say? I attribute this to the fact that apparently they work very hard (I'm guessing dawn to dusk) doing manual jobs, and they don't have access to fast food, and may not eat much sugar. Some of the men I've seen in old TV news stories, though, were overweight. Which leads me to think that the men don't work hard, but eat plenty.

But what a price to pay for being thin.

[kestrel91316]

1. My guess is that if they get fat, they get gone. One way or another.

Lots of space to get rid of fat ladies on 1700 acres.......just sayin'

[Honeycombe8]

9. I thought of that, but I tend to think it's more of a healthier food consumption, since

they don't eat fast food.

[High Plains]

17. So now you're insinuating mass murder of fat FLDS women?

With not a shred of evidence.

I'm not surprised.

[Kitty Herder]

2. Oh, fer fucks sake.

I've seen plenty of overweight FLDS women. Just because you're not seeing them on the news doesn't mean they don't exist.

And they may seem Stepford-like on tv; I agree with you there. But up close and personal, they're just sad women stuck in a sad situation, women who believe things that make them miserable and do things they would not otherwise do based on those beliefs. I wish I could get them all audiobooks of Fawn Brodie's No Man Knows My History or Larson's By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus or any of a dozen other helpful books whose titles are escaping me right now. No state intervention can free these women until their minds are free of the beliefs that make the abuse and the inequality of women acceptable to them.

[Honeycombe8]

11. Just sayin' that I have seen only one. I've seen maybe 50 of those polyg women on TV...

I've seen one of them who is overweight.

I doubt that the TV cameras had gathered all the thin ones and left the chubby ones out. Compare with regular Americans....get a group of Americans on camera anywhere....and MOST will be overweight.

The list of several thousand who were killed on 9/11....I noticed when their pictures were shown one after the other on TV that most of them were overweight, regardless of gender or race. They, of course, had office jobs and probably ate a steady diet of fast food.

America has an obesity problem, so I noticed is all....I noticed that they looked different from "regular" Americans in different ways. Different dress, different hair....and different body size (as a group).

[Diane R]

3. Read Carolyn Jessop's book 'Escape', before you judge these women.

[murielm99]

4. I saw an excerpt from her book online.

In the excerpt, it said that Jeffs expected the women to stay thin. He admires thinness and frowns on overweight women. I had not been paying attention to their size until I read that.

[Kitty Herder]

6. In our society, all women are expected to stay thin. But we don't all manage it.

It's the same for the FLDS. I've seen plenty of chubby ones. Hell, the girl who was the victim in the recent accomplice-to-rape case against Warren Jeffs was a hefty girl. (I think she's brave and admire her a lot. )

Here she is, then and now:

[murielm99]

7. Yes she is big.

I am simply telling you what I read in the book excerpt.

[Honeycombe8]

14. Well, I've seen quite a few on TV. Get a group of Americans together, and most will be overweight.

The polyg women majority were thin. Doesn't mean that no chubby ones exist. But as a group, they are apparently thinner. This is good for physical health, of course....we are all paying the health coverage price for the obesity epidemic that America has. Overweight leads to diabetes and high blood pressure, plus increased heart problems and increased cancer rate. I just noticed, is all, that they ALSO looked different in the body size category, as well as those other ways.

[Honeycombe8]

13. Interesting. So it is enforced by the men? Still...if a person is active all day,

and does eat high-fat, high-calorie food (read that to mean....no fast food, which is extra high calorie), a person would be thinner than the "regular" American, I expect. I know I would be (I say, as a chubby woman who expects to get her weight under control once and for all!).

[Honeycombe8]

12. I saw her on TV. What's your point? nt

[Ellen Forradalom]

5. Thank God they're not fat

That's of highest importance. :eyes:

[Honeycombe8]

8. Just noticing, since America has an obesity problem. The polyg women are apparently...

physically healthier. With thinness comes no diabetes, lower blood pressure, fewer heart attacks (the #1 killer or women), plus the added benefits of more energy.

Yes, being thin is important, since it is healthier than being obese. Most Americans are obese. Not just some. Most. We all are paying the health coverage price for that.

[CTyankee]

15. Not every overweight American eats fast food.

At one point I was about 15 lbs over my desired weight. I increased my workouts and ate nutritionally dense food, but wasn't terribly successful in dropping weight (only about 8 lbs.).

Sedentary life style also plays a part, as well as having rich foods. I can't stand fast food for many reasons, including sodium, but I sure used to get heavier just eating a wonderfully rich, tho also wonderfully nutritious, diet.

[Honeycombe8]

18. No, not every obese person eats fast food. But most do. It's a lifestyle...

that includes what you eat, in addition to other things. A person can become obese w/o eating fast food, but most DO eat fast food. Remember that fast food is McDonald's, Arby's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Chick File', Subway (yes, even Subway...it's food that's fast, right?), every pizza place in New York and elsewhere just about, all fried chicken places, sandwich places, etc., etc.

I don't think of myself as eating fast food at all, since I never eat at Burger King or McDonald's or places like that. A couple of times a year I pick up fried chicken from Popeye's. But in reality, I eat lunch out with friends frequently, and those sandwich places we go to are technically fast food places. It's food that is fast, and is pre-prepared usually. They are generally higher in fat and sodium than home cooked food.

A person can be very healthy and eat mainly raw foods and be overweight. The thinner a person is does not mean the healthier he is. I was speaking mainly of obesity, though, or being more than a few pounds overweight. If you pick out a group of average Americans, most of them will be overweight to some degree. And most will eat fast food somewhat regularly. It's the lifestyle of the modern American. Including me.

[CTyankee]

20. My experience travelling in Europe has shown me that you can eat well and still be thin.

In Italy, the trattorias serve unbelievably good food just everywhere. The wine flows and every adult drinks a few glasses a day. In Rome, my thin American friend was looking at clothes and needed the larger Italian sizes to fit into (she's also tall and the Roman women are pretty tiny). I gave up trying to find clothes there that would fit me, and I'm a size 10-12!

They have "fast food" in Italy but it is generally eaten "on the go" and certainly not in the evening. Most restaurants I go to there are what we would call "family friendly" (what they would EXPECT a restaurant to be!). Big family sitting around a table, young papas and older nonne (grandmas) carrying babies around the restaurant for everyone to admire and comment on("E carino" and "che bella" are expected responses from you). The waiter will bring the check only when you ask for it.

There are so many other, better ways of living and eating...

[Ellen Forradalom]

16. Your post is striking

in mentioning both repressed demeanor and physical appearance. It demonstrates, if unintentionally, that in our culture (and many others) it's normal to scrutinize women's appearance and comment freely thereupon. Women's appearance defines them.

I don't accept the health argument, either. The stress of fear and repression represents a much greater health hazard than any excess weight might. Consider that it is common for overweight women's legitimate health complaints to be brushed aside or missed entirely due to their doctors' obsession with their weight. See http://fathealth.wordpress.com/.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. That's what cults do...

...they remove any sense of self a person has, then separates the person from their family and friends, forcing them into isolation, where all they have is a culture that celebrates conformity.

[Canuckistanian]

19. You're probably not seeing a representative sample of FLDS women

What about the over-50 year old women?

Also, you're only seeing the women chosen by the media to represent all FLDS women.

Who's to say "the overweight ones" never made it to the FRONT of the camera?

[CTyankee]

21. Just this morning on GMA I saw several who were overweight. (but not interviewed)

I think they only trot out the slim ones for the canned storiesin the hopes that we'll look at them in a more "healthy" way. The shot I saw this morning was more candid (or they didn't realize they were being filmed).