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Popular Culture Review
behaviors in order to elevate herself in the family hierarchy, and as she
establishes herself in this role, she diminishes Bill’s role by making her own
more valuable. If she were to submit to the exterior system and play her role as
second, and thus subordinate, wife, Nicki would reinforce Bill’s masculinity, but
instead she chooses to challenge it almost constantly: by using masculine
behaviors, overspending, and over-stepping her duties as second wife.
Margene, the third wife, is almost devoid of masculinity and
correspondingly shows no desire to lead the family or to overtly destabilize the
authoritative hierarchy. She is overly emotional, needy, and can use her
femininity to get what she wants from Bill, but in terms of the family unit, she is
essentially powerless. It is Margene who is constantly asked to sacrifice and to
yield to the masculinity of the others. She watches the children, lends her car to
visiting family, and has the most sparsely furnished house of the three women.
Most importantly perhaps, she is never fully aware of what is going on in the
other houses and is treated almost as another child by her sister-wives.
Margene’s role is deceptively important though, because she has come to plural
marriage from the outside. Her surprise, misunderstanding, and frustration
reflect the reaction of the non-polygamous audience into the series itself.
Margene’s ability to draw the outside world, the viewer, into the family unit is
her own power. Not only does she engage the spectator, she calls attention to the
family by associating with neighbors and, in so doing, threatens the safety of the
family unit. When Margene becomes pregnant toward the end of the season, the
possibility of suspicion falling on the family is increased, because this young,
unwed, seemingly uninvolved woman will have to justify her condition to the
outside world. Her exaggerated femininity is a threat to Bill’s ability to control
and safeguard his family, because she demonstrates that his desire to please her,
and to reinforce his masculinity in so doing, makes his masculinity vulnerable to
her femininity.
Bill’s masculinity is obviously threatened by the actions Barb and Nicki
take to replace the man of the house, but it is also threatened by the relationship
that these women form without him. The women consider themselves married to
each other as well as to Bill so, when it comes time to choose sides in family
disputes, loyalties are often tom between several different partners. For
example, Barb learns of Nicki’s credit card debt but agrees not to tell Bill,
allowing Nicki to tell him herself, but when Bill asks how she coul