A scene from “Big Love” from HBO.com
Actress Ginnifer Goodwin plays one of three wives of Bill Paxton’s character on the HBO series “Big Love.” She said that her character on the show is not from the same “world” as the polygamist sect that was raided by authorities after abuse allegations. Goodwin says that “Big Love’s” version of polygamy is “sugar coated,” and that it’s meant for entertainment. She also briefly mentioned something that been getting a lot of attention by the media lately, the style of the women’s hair and clothing, calling it “compound chic”:

“My character does not come from that world,” the 29-year-old actress told PEOPLE. “She’s married into a family who come from that world but are no longer a part of it. My clothes on the show are a little outdated, not my personal taste, but certainly not ‘compound chic.’ ”

Nonetheless, Goodwin noted that violence and abuse is “certainly implied” in the critically acclaimed show.

“We’re acutely aware of what goes on in real life,” she said. “Ours is a sugar-coated version. But we feel we are educating. We find the human story very compelling.”

[From People.com]

I’ve seen most of the first season of “Big Love,” and the show is incredibly entertaining and well done, but of course hunky Bill Paxton makes polygamy seem more glamorous than it is. Good for Goodwin for saying that it’s not like real life, but she was gracious about it and surely didn’t offend her employer.

Teen boys are routinely kicked out of the cult with nowhere to go
The case of the raided polygamist compound in Eldorado, Texas has captured the interest of the media. There are allegations of pregnant teenage girls as young as 13 married off and pregnant by husbands in their 50s. It’s not just the teen girls who suffer in the insular society of the cult. CBS News has an interview with a young man pushed out by the cult. He’s called a “lost boy,” which is a term for the young men kicked out by the sect for minor indiscretions because they serve as competition for the older men trying to monopolize the women. Brent Jeffs is the nephew of leader Warren Jeffs, and he spoke about how young boys are just dropped off in town after they’re kicked out, and they often have no one to call and nowhere to go. He was interviewed along with a woman who runs a nonprofit organization that strives to help these “lost boys” abandoned by the cult.

Polygamist men defend their practices
CBS News also has an interview with some of the men from the sect. They said they don’t abuse children and that girls are not married off until they’re mature. One member said “a few years back, the law in Texas allowed a girl to be married when she was 14,” and that “”I have taught my children to be morally clean. They have no contact, no sexual contact until they are of a mature age. And none of my children have been touched in that way. None of them have been abused in that way.”

It really broke my heart to see interviews with the women separated from their children. All children under five were allowed to stay with their mothers, but 416 children over the age of five were removed and are under state custody. There are court hearings about whether they should be placed in foster care, and it seems as if everyone was considered guilty before these families were given a chance to show that their children are safe and well cared for.

If one child is at risk, they should all be removed, according to Texas Attorney General
MSNBC has an interview with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, and he said that “if these children, young girls under the age of 16 have been victimized by being sexually assaulted by men in this compound it means that not only the girls who were sexually abused, but all of the children in that compound are potentially victims and it will be critically important to separate those children from that criminal kind of situation.” He said “This is treated like any other situation where there is a sexual assault of a child in a home” and explained that if one child is abused that all the other children are removed because they are also at risk. He said that they can’t live with someone who can potentially harm them. The ACLU has said that this case brings up basic Constitutional issues about whether people are secure in their homes with their families “absent evidence of imminent danger.”

You kind of understand that they’re trying to stop this cult that abuses teen girls, but it seems there must be some kind of compromise that can be reached so that the mothers can be with their children. Meredith Viera reported that more than 300 attorneys have volunteered to represent these children for free. Hopefully some kind of legal solution will be reached soon, because it seems much better than sending these hundreds of kids into the foster care system.

Polygamist Women don’t cut their hair, like to keep it up
I went off on a bit of a tangent there, this case has been fascinating me for a while and I wanted a chance to report on it. As for the women’s hair and clothing that I mentioned earlier, AP has a story that they don’t cut their hair “because they believe they will use it to wash Christ’s feet during the Second Coming.” Their long pioneer-looking dresses “are meant to show modesty and conformity,” and may help stop competition in an environment in which one man has many wives.

Meredith Viera also asked one of the older women about her hair, and she got embarrassed and said “it just keeps it out of our face so we can see… we like to have long hair and have it done up”