Gay marriage is sooooo last week! This week, polygamy is in!
Apparently
graphic gay sex and threesomes are way too cliche and passe these days,
Hollywood had to find a new way to push the envelope. So ABC's
"Mistresses [1]" introduced polygamy to prime time network TV in a big way
in the episode titled "Threesomes."
The previous episode saw
Karen (Yunjin Kim) in a threesome with her own doctor, Alec, and his
wife, Vivian, whose life Karen had just saved by donating her rare blood
type... don't ask.
But just in case you thought that was just your typical
Hollywood threesome, they made it very clear in this episode that the encounter was far
more than sex, it was about love and even marriage, in this scene
where Karen talks to her friend Joss:
-Joss: What about your feelings? Why are theirs more important than yours?
-Karen: Because they're married.
-Yeah, and they invited you into that marriage, which makes you a part of it now.
-[Sighs]
If I could somehow combine the two of them, it would be the perfect
person for me. The lover, the partner, the friend I've always been
looking for.
-But it doesn't work that way.
-They're two people, they're married to each other, and one of them happens to be a woman.
-Oh,
trust me you could get over the woman part really quickly. Do you
remember when I felt like it was a thing when I was first with Alex, and
then she just became this person that I was crazy in love with.
-Have you ever been in a situation like this before?
-[Laughs]
Threesomes? Honey, I invented them. But no, I've never done the full-on
polyamorous thing, and I'm pretty sure that words like "like" or "love"
were never part of the equation. Why? Honey, do you think you might be
falling in love with them?
-That's the weird part. I feel like I could.
Later,
Karen is wrapping up the marriage therapy group she leads - at a
church, mind you - and Alec appears in the doorway, leading to this
thinly veiled soliloquy asking her to join them in a polyamorous
relationship:
-Kim: We've covered a lot of ground today. Does anyone have anything else they want to share before we wrap up? Any questions?
-Alec:
I have a question. I'd like to know what happens when a marriage is
broken. Say your partner gets sick, so sick that both of you are
separately preparing for the worst. But then a miracle happens. The
worst doesn't come. The life is saved. But the marriage - The marriage
has suffered irreparable damage. And then something new comes along,
something strange and taboo and unimaginable. And suddenly, it feels
like the marriage could change form. It will never be the same. But
maybe, just maybe, it could find a new way to exist. Would you risk it?
-Kim: Absolutely. If something unique and unexpectedly beautiful came along I know I would.
Do
you see how they managed to make polygamy sound so harmless and wonderful? The marriage is broken and the only way to "save" it is
through polygamy - how noble and righteous a choice this is! It sounds
insane, but then again, so did gay marriage just a few short years ago.
Hollywood
- and ABC especially - did their part to normalize gay relationships
and marriage in our culture [2]and now, the week after the Supreme Court
legalized gay marriage, they've moved on to normalizing polygamy. This is what a slippery slope looks like.