New Religions and the Mediation of Non-Monogamy: Polyamory, Polygamy, and Reality Television

New Religions and the Mediation of Non-Monogamy examines the relationship between alternative American religions and the media representation of non-monogamies on reality-TV shows like Sister Wives, Seeking Sister Wife, and Polyamory: Married & Dating. The book is the first full-length study informed by fieldwork with Mormon polygamists and fieldwork with LGBTQ Neo-Pagan/Neo-Tantric polyamorists. The book tracks community members’ responses to the new media about them, their engagement with television and other media, and the likeness of representations to actual populations through fieldwork and interviews.

The book highlights differences in socioeconomic privileges that shape Mormon polygamists’ lives and LGBTQ polyamorists’ lives, respectively. The polyamory movement receives support from liberal media. As reality TV has shifted the image of Mormon polygamy to one of liberal American middle-class culture, Mormon polygamists have gained in public favor. The media landscape of non-monogamy is mediated by, in addition to these alternative religious populations, the norms and practices of the reality-TV industry and by sociocultural and economic realities, including race and class.

This book adds to the fields of media studies, critical race and gender studies, new religious movements, and queer studies.