By admin 
‘Sister Wives’ has turned into a ruthless case study on why polygamy doesn’t work in today’s cultural landscape. After premiering in 2010, as a rare example of the foundation and structure of a family thriving to live within the confines of polygamy in a world that didn’t always understand the concept, the entire mission of the show has failed miserably. Kody Brown, a man living with three women and 18 children, was a curious outlier for some and aspirational for others, presenting a lifestyle that most reality fans were clueless about. Sister Wives immediately became a hit, with fans tuning in to observe the dynamics of a polygamist family with wives working together to provide a cohesive life for themselves and their children.
Initially, Kody appeared to be a man with the world at his fingertips, married to three submissive women dedicated completely to him. Somewhere over the last fifteen years, Kody lost the respect of his women and children, resulting in him losing his perceived control over his home. He brought a fourth wife, Robyn, and her three children into the fold and that move proved to be the shift in the dynamic that caused the bottom to fall out. As the wives left one by one, Kody’s control and confidence left with them, leaving him currently desperately clutching his remaining wife and attempting to be her everything.
Parade Magazine focused on Janelle recent one-on-one session with host Sukanya Krishnan, to talk about her feelings about Kody’s recent behavior towards her and the other wives. “I’ve never seen him be this mean before,” Janelle explained. “I feel like a lot of people want to pin the blame on Robyn. I don’t think she is necessarily innocent in this. It takes two. I think in a lot of ways he’s even more villainous, I guess, to kind of take away some of the blame from her.” Janelle’s perspective on her ex-husband’s actions being a response to his need to protect his current and only wife, proves her maturity. Where many women would look for an opportunity to blame the woman in the situation, Janelle offers Robyn grace and, although she acknowledges Robyn isn’t blameless in the situation, she holds Kody responsible for his actions, even if they are an attempt to shield his wife from any blame.
Related
Kody proved Janelle’s theory correct during a conversation with Robyn as the two prepared to film their individual one-on-one sessions. Kody asked Robyn how she felt about heading to the one-on-one sessions, and she said she’d rather have a root canal at the dentist’s office than go through the interviews. Robyn’s downcast eyes and defeated shoulders as she got into the passenger seat to head to set spoke volumes about her mood. Kody took in her depressed posture and attempted to lift her confidence. “Is there anything I can do to protect you from this?” he asked. Robyn responded without hesitation. “No, God will protect me,” she replied. Kody’s face fell as he realized that not even the wife by his side trusts his protection or his ability to fix things for her. TheFairyGodboss.com defines someone with the Superman complex as someone who feels useless if they can’t help someone else. When Kody realizes that he is unable to be Robyn’s superman, it could potentially cause him to lash out at the others to attempt to regain her trust.
The scene with Kody and Robyn gives context to his repeated behavior of late and proves Janelle’s point. Most of Kody’s grandstanding against his ex-wives and even his children is an attempt to regain Robyn’s trust in him, therefore restoring his confidence in himself. Fans have criticized the ultimatum Kody has given his children, stating if they don’t accept and embrace Robyn, they can’t have a relationship with him. He has also received backlash for his gratuitous comments on how physically attracted he is to Robyn, when he never made those types of comments about his previous wives.
In one scene, Kody suggested Robyn looked “delicious” and made a slurping sound, suggesting his physical reaction to her looks. Besides his comments being in extremely poor taste and somewhat out of character, fans of the show assume they are fueled by Kody’s need to constantly affirm Robyn so that she doesn’t take a page out of the other women’s books and leave him too.
Janelle’s intuition about her ex-husband appears to be spot on as the series has gone from a huge thriving family to a battlefield consisting of the three ex-wives and their children versus Kody, Robyn and her children. There doesn’t seem to be any boundaries to the extent Kody will go to in an effort to hold on to Robyn’s love and loyalty, even if it means completely alienating his former family. “I’ve never seen him this mean. All the rewriting of history, trying to hurt people,” Janelle repeated. “I feel like it’s a smokescreen.”
If Kody is attempting to champion and protect Robyn at the expense of his past, chances are he is going to end up eventually losing her. If that happens, he’ll be forced to deal with himself and finally acknowledge the many mistakes he made in showing up for his former wives and his children. For anyone considering a polygamist lifestyle similar to the one Kody has become famous for, his story should play out like a cautionary tale. All that glitters is definitely not gold and just because a man has multiple wives under his thumb doesn’t mean he can keep them there forever.