Yet, the world is full of women who are either in this situation right now or just recently got out. We sat down with a woman who escaped life as a "plural wife" in a fundamentalist Mormon sect. She says ...

Polygamy has been around for as long as marriage has been a thing -- anyone talking about "traditional" marriage has to admit that tradition has often involved one dude with half a dozen women doing a rotation through his bed. Of course, when you hear about polygamy these days you automatically start thinking of a creepy cult situation -- there just aren't that many well-meaning, equality-minded folks out there looking to start a harem.

5 A Creepy Old Dude Decides Who Will Be Your Spouse

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There's no courting for fundamentalist Mormon kids. The idea is, you're supposed to get your own "personal revelation" about whom you're meant to be with. Since that comes directly from God, dating is forbidden. In practice, though, the revelation is subject to approval by the Prophet. That means, in reality, what matters is whom he thinks you ought to marry. So some guy who looks like this:

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Or maybe this:

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Or, in my case, this:

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If that wink doesn't make you queasy, your stomach is defective.

... is the sole arbiter of your sexual future. The process by which they pick brides for husbands is the creepiest part of all, and we'll get to that later (hint: it doesn't appear to involve a revelation from God).

My church was a fundamentalist offshoot of the Church of Mormon called the Righteous Branch, and that snowy-haired manwich above would sit down with every 18-year-old girl and tell her whom she ought to marry and fuck. And in that respect, we were lucky -- most of these fundamentalist Mormon groups start earlier, sometimes when the girls are as young as 14. Thankfully, I was (barely) an adult when I was told who would be my husband.

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As opposed to a lot of girls for whom cootie catchers might as well be a legally binding contract.

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Every six months our church held a conference. We'd gather at the temple, hear the word of the lord, etc. I'd just turned 18. I was a skinny young thing, and attracting boys. I was conflicted between wanting to find my own love and wanting to follow the path of the Lord, and I asked the Prophet for a blessing. I didn't know that, in reality, the decision had already been made.

At the time, I was living with a friend of the family and his wife (let's call them "Bill" and "Beth") who were members of the church. If you think it odd that nobody would have concerns about a married man inviting a 17-year-old girl to live under his roof, well, you've already guessed the next plot twist: the Prophet had already spoken to both Bill and my parents behind my back, encouraging them to let me move in, because he decided Bill was to be my future husband. Meanwhile, I just thought they were nice people giving me a new start in a new city (fundamentalist Mormon teenagers can be on the naive side). So, during the blessing, the Prophet told me that "my salvation" lay with Bill. Beth (his existing wife) wasn't crazy about that, but for the next few weeks Bill and the church leaders bullied her into accepting me. Eventually she gave in, and the wedding was set for five days later.