Pioneer Women

It is interesting to see Pioneer women in 2008. You’ve seen them in the news…the women from the compound of that whacked-out polygamist ranch in Texas. They look like they stepped out of an ole John Wayne Western …with one big difference…John didn’t have 5 wives and 17 children.

I am not in favor of the polygamist lifestyle. I can’t imagine sharing PaulA with 3 other wives. Unless of course, one of them had to do all the grocery shopping for the rest of our natural lives.

I felt sorry watching the mothers from the compound who were separated from their children while authorities investigated them. I just don’t understand why the women couldn’t have hid their kids and brought them with them. They wear those long voluminous pioneer dresses. “Come on ladies, use your noggin…You could have put those dresses to good use. You could have hidden at least 3 small children under all that garb. And why didn’t you put your bouffant coifed hairstyle to good use? That hair-did is lifted so high…you could have hidden a few small weapons…maybe some rope, a jack knife…to help with an escape plan.” These women need to be a little bit more resourceful.

The thing I found most eerie was when the women talked…they sounded like Stepford wives. Their voices were all the same…very quiet and monotone. They sounded like they had either been brainwashed or undergone a partial brain extraction. And when asked a sensitive question about what takes place at the compound…they would repeat: “The compound is a nice place to live. The compound is a nice place to live”…Yea, keep telling yourself that, sista.

I happen to like the show “Big Love” on HBO which deals with polygamy. In the show, they make the polygamist lifestyle seem so normal. The Happy Polygamist comes home from work and kisses wife #1 and kids…goes through the backyard to wife #2’s house and talks to her and the kids about their day…and then they all get together with wife #3 and kids for dinner. They’re all smiling, joking…and then the Happy Polygamist says “goodnight” and heads to bed with wife #3…(hey, it's her turn) while wife #1 and wife #2 do the dishes.

Maybe I have it wrong. Maybe the polygamist compound in Texas is really like “Big Love”…just routine family life….but wait, that is a television show. Get real Kat!