Rowenna

I never meet Rowenna; Rowenna told me her story over the phone. Polygamy has always intrigued me and being a curious person I always want to know more. I have encountered polygamy in other parts of the world and tried not to be judgmental on it because most of the time it goes with one’s belief. I really wanted to portray a story on polygamy and the damage it could cause. When through my research I realized that here in the USA people were living in polygamy, my first thought was that here it was going to be different, better than in other parts of the world. I talked to women on both sides, those for it and the ones against it because they have lived it and saw the problems it cause.  I have to admit one part of me likes the idea of having another woman to share the housework, but then I talked to Rowenna and realized that it was not even funny for me to have such thoughts. Rowenna was raised among polygamist. Her parents didn’t practice polygamy although they followed all the other tenets of the religion. Her father was Lutheran and had one way of thinking and her mother, a Mormon, had another. Rowenna’s mother told her that she had to live in it in order to live in the kingdom of God and be with her.

Rowenna’s mom was really unhappy for not being able to live in polygamy. Rowenna’s oldest sister married a man she loved and who practiced the same religion.

When Rowenna was 20 her brother in law asked her to join the union. Rowenna lived for 11 years with her sister in the same house. Rowenna felt lucky because her sister is a midwife and she was there for the birth of Rowenna’s eight children. She says that other women give birth with men acting as midwives.  Rowenna’s eight children were born at home in secrecy. Her children couldn’t call their father daddy because of the secrecy that has to be maintained at all cost. Rowenna lived in poverty. She received food stamps. Rowenna has “survivor’s guilt” because she lived in it and her children suffered from it. Today Rowenna isn’t living in polygamy anymore and is actually quiet vocal against it.  In order to survive Rowenna had to realize that she was a victim. Rowenna says that her entire life she knew something was wrong in the way she was living. Rowenna says “real evil is when good people stand by and do nothing”.  I choose to depicted Rowenna as being split because of how she felt her entire life, for being the second wife who does not have any legal rights. The mask is because of how women that live in polygamy have to hide themselves all the time and the “P” is the scarlet letter for polygamy.