Posted on 11/21/2002 9:22:18 AM PST by Sweet_Sunflower29
It has been four years since TV crews frequented her southern Utah doorstep to document her husband's polygamous lifestyle, but Joanna Joseph still can command an audience.
She spoke Wednesday to several hundred people at Weber State University, where curious students were not shy about asking pointed questions about life with Alex Joseph.
Was she ever jealous of the other wives? (Yes.) Did she follow any Mormon practices or beliefs? (No.) What were the family's sexual relations like? (More on that later.) Joseph answered with disarming candor, and even sang a witty folk song about religious freedom.
"I am not here to sell polygamy," said Joseph, 49. "But I am here to tell you it did work for me."
Dressed in an ankle-length pleated skirt and blouse buttoned to the neck, Joseph spoke at the invitation of Kay Gillespie, chairman of WSU's criminal justice department, who wanted to offer his students a fresh perspective on social issues.
Joseph's appearance marked her first public comments about her famed family since Alex Joseph, who claimed to have wed 20 women, died of liver cancer in 1998 at age 62. He served three terms as mayor of the tiny town of Big Water, which he founded in 1983.
Joanna was a student at the University of Montana and engaged to another man when she met Alex Joseph in the early 1970s. Although he had four wives at that time, she was intrigued.
"He was really candid about his other wives. He was 'Margaret this' and 'Pamela that.' So I knew all about them, and I could tell he really cared about them," said Joseph. A questioning Baptist, she found herself seeking spiritual enlightenment and said she "just had the feeling that Alex was the ticket to that path."
They were married in 1973 in a Redlands, Calif., living room. He was 36; she was 20. Her parents did not attend. Several years later, the family moved to the southern Utah desert near Lake Powell.
Although Joseph described her new family as harmonious, it was not without its petty jealousies, she said. The other wives resented her college education at first, and Joseph became upset when Alex Joseph subsequently married two of her college roommates.
"We had 14 wives at one time," said Joseph, but a handful left for various reasons. "So we had a divorce rate pretty much like the rest of the country."
Joanna and Alex Joseph had one child, a son named Easy. By the 1990s, she was one of nine wives living at the family complex. The youngest, Dawn, was 18 when she married Alex Joseph, then 50, although they consummated their relationship when she was 15.
Film crews visited the compound often, seeking titillating details about the family's sexual practices. Joanna Joseph showed students clips from several TV features on the family, including an "Inside Edition" segment in which Alex Joseph claimed to have no favorite partner and his wives said they took turns initiating sex with him.
He and his wives even experimented with group sex, Joanna Joseph said in response to one student's question. "But for the most part it was one on one," she said.
When her husband died, Joseph was one of seven remaining wives. Nineteen family members, including seven children and five grandchildren, live in Big Water today. The children are not "polygs," Joseph said. She leads tours of Glen Canyon Dam; her son turns 14 Friday and attends school in Page, Ariz.
Joseph blames monogamy for societal problems such as adultery, divorce and broken homes. She considers herself an advocate for plural marriage, although she was careful not to push polygamy on the students. Instead, she urged them to be open-minded about alternative lifestyles.
At least one student, Rebecca Runnels-Stansfield, said Joseph's presentation made her feel more sympathetic toward those who practice polygamy: "I felt uncomfortable [during the question about sex]. But her response was quite good. I appreciate the human values she brought to the issue."
Hmm . . . the youngest wife was 18 when she married into the group, but 15 when she "consummated" her relationship with the husband. Sounds like adultery to me.
divorce
Ah, your polygamous group had a high internal divorce rate as well.
and broken homes.
What happened to the children of the divorcees in this little polygamous clan? Were they not members of a broken home?
"We had 14 wives at one time," said Joseph, but a handful left for various reasons. "So we had a divorce rate pretty much like the rest of the country."
Ummmm, she contradicted herself on that point.
Perhaps they had even less before?
Yeah, we have such a problem with this in America.
What the hell is it with these hyphen-name idiots?
Oh, I bet you are only saying that. If ye knew what was good for your OWN personal happiness, you'd try ;-)
Just think would a woman like that would do just to have someone else make the mortgage payment or pick up a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread on the way home.
Using her logic, cars are the reason for societal problems like crashes and carjackings. She's coming from a polygamous situation whose "divorce rate was like the rest of society's", and in the next breath says that MONOGAMY is to blame for divorce?
Clearly she's not the brightest penny in the fountain.
One at a time, baby. When you're done with me, discard me and I'll be on my way...
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