While polygamy is accepted in other cultures like tribes and clans in Africa and Middle Eastern countries, for the audience in America it is unacceptable. Even the law forbids it when it comes to marriage. For those that violate the norm of monogamy within the States harsh judgment and queer looks are the consequences. As said by Howard Becker, deviance is determined by society's reaction to an act not the act itself. Unfortunately polygamists have been subjects of this labeling theory. Their act is seen as deviant by the conformist of the American culture when in fact under certain conditions their actions would be seen as logical and acceptable.
The primary deviance in this act is that the sexual restrictions of the society are being violated. Law and religion play a key role in shaping this standard that the majority conforms to. This oligarchy surprisingly has a great affect on the love lives of its citizens. This is seen in how a few Middle Eastern nations that are of another religion and allow polygamy embrace this behavior and turn it into a cultural norm. This shows the relativity of deviance. Many polygamists in America deviate from monogamy for religious reasons, or personal desires. They see themselves as the outgroup for being accepting to this idea and go ahead and join their own subculture. A specific example of this is the LDS Restorationist Movement with a certain group of Mormons. While legally unable to be bigamist, they find ways around the law to be considered religiously married. The HBO show Big Love depicts this subculture to many viewers, who are given an exaggerated perspective of how differently these people live. This causes stronger emotions to arise against this deviant nature, insuring that public display of this love will be culturally deviant for some years to come.
The secondary deviance seen in this act is breaking the norm of simple group relationships. The most natural and simplest type of group is a dyad. Anything after that gets more complex socially. The break from this simple structure has prompt society to label these people "polygamists", which has a negative connotation like "pedophile", "anorexic", and other deviant behavior. Polygamists are willing to deal with the complexities of larger groups to satisfy their love, desires, or religion. In his article on Polygamy, Alex Deane describes that one of the major cons in these relationships is the competition it causes amongst its partners, which can be confusing for children born into these structures. It also causes jealousy when a dominant partner arises. This is the chance that this group is willing to take.
While the reactions and discriminatory behavior towards this group may be seen as their own personal and social trouble, it is not impossible for this view to change in America. As seen with natural disasters morals and values can change quickly. Under the circumstance that there is an extreme death rate or imbalance of gender do to a tragic event like war, terrorism, or an epic natural disaster. Polygamy can easily become the norm for building up a nation or a races population. For America, which is a powerful and dominate nation, accepting a loss of power from this imbalance would be unacceptable up against its competitors. When it comes down to it polygamy could very well be used to build up the population to regain power. It could even be stamped with the stigma as patriotic, as seen with working women during the World Wars. It was against the norm during that time for women to take on male jobs, but that quickly changed due to the militant events. In an instant, women in the work force became patriotic. The government could even go so far as to legalize marriage for these groups just to retain the American values of marriage and commitment. While the chances of this occurring naturally are extremely low, given a dramatic event these outcasts can easily become an ingroup.
The primary deviance in this act is that the sexual restrictions of the society are being violated. Law and religion play a key role in shaping this standard that the majority conforms to. This oligarchy surprisingly has a great affect on the love lives of its citizens. This is seen in how a few Middle Eastern nations that are of another religion and allow polygamy embrace this behavior and turn it into a cultural norm. This shows the relativity of deviance. Many polygamists in America deviate from monogamy for religious reasons, or personal desires. They see themselves as the outgroup for being accepting to this idea and go ahead and join their own subculture. A specific example of this is the LDS Restorationist Movement with a certain group of Mormons. While legally unable to be bigamist, they find ways around the law to be considered religiously married. The HBO show Big Love depicts this subculture to many viewers, who are given an exaggerated perspective of how differently these people live. This causes stronger emotions to arise against this deviant nature, insuring that public display of this love will be culturally deviant for some years to come.
The secondary deviance seen in this act is breaking the norm of simple group relationships. The most natural and simplest type of group is a dyad. Anything after that gets more complex socially. The break from this simple structure has prompt society to label these people "polygamists", which has a negative connotation like "pedophile", "anorexic", and other deviant behavior. Polygamists are willing to deal with the complexities of larger groups to satisfy their love, desires, or religion. In his article on Polygamy, Alex Deane describes that one of the major cons in these relationships is the competition it causes amongst its partners, which can be confusing for children born into these structures. It also causes jealousy when a dominant partner arises. This is the chance that this group is willing to take.
While the reactions and discriminatory behavior towards this group may be seen as their own personal and social trouble, it is not impossible for this view to change in America. As seen with natural disasters morals and values can change quickly. Under the circumstance that there is an extreme death rate or imbalance of gender do to a tragic event like war, terrorism, or an epic natural disaster. Polygamy can easily become the norm for building up a nation or a races population. For America, which is a powerful and dominate nation, accepting a loss of power from this imbalance would be unacceptable up against its competitors. When it comes down to it polygamy could very well be used to build up the population to regain power. It could even be stamped with the stigma as patriotic, as seen with working women during the World Wars. It was against the norm during that time for women to take on male jobs, but that quickly changed due to the militant events. In an instant, women in the work force became patriotic. The government could even go so far as to legalize marriage for these groups just to retain the American values of marriage and commitment. While the chances of this occurring naturally are extremely low, given a dramatic event these outcasts can easily become an ingroup.
*photo from HBO's Big Love
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