In episode one, Dawn immerses herself in the world of polyamory – or free love. Not quite ready to settle down with one man, Dawn is curious to find out what it is like to live in a relationship but share partners freely. Her journey begins in San Diego, California where a husband and wife run a kind of free love school to open people up to the idea of polyamory. "They're going to open me up and cleanse my chakras and introduce me to the idea of multiple lovers," explains Dawn. "I've got no idea what to expect but I think there's going to be quite a lot of groping". Trying to discover if there's more to the free love world than just sex, Dawn experiments with role playing and physical group exercises, before finishing off with a frank, fact-finding session in the school hot tub. Next it's off to Germany were Dawn visits Zegg, a 1960's style commune isolated in former East Germany, where members live a polyamorous, utopian lifestyle. Idyllic on the surface, Dawn digs deeper to discover the cost of free love – fear of abandonment, jealousy, competition – and meets some of its victims. And, before she leaves, Dawn has a chance to experience one of the most extreme and controversial practices of this unusual community. "It's intoxicating to feel that the normal rules and limits of society don't apply to you," muses Dawn. "I can imagine a life where I didn't have to choose one man but I also witnessed the downside. I think free love sounds great on paper but the price is too high for me".
In this second episode, Dawn ponders the lengths to which people will go to find a mate as she heads off to Ukraine to investigate the booming mail order bride industry. It's estimated that around 4,000 men find brides in this way each year but, asks Dawn, what are the costs to the women, and men, of trying to find love like this? "I'll be immersing myself in the world of mail order brides," explains Dawn. "Women who so badly want to get out of Russia and Ukraine, they'll try to find love in a week and marry a western man they hardly know." "Is this industry really about love or about love and money?" she asks, "Can anyone really find love in a foreign land in just a week?"
In the third of four programmes, Dawn travels to Japan to immerse herself in the ancient and painstaking rituals of Japan's ultimate party girls: geisha. From the raunchy hot springs of Arima Onsen to the sophisticated geisha houses of historic Kyoto, Dawn takes a crash course in how to gratify Japanese businessmen. "Can dedicating your life to pleasing men make you happy?" she asks. In this rare glimpse into a mysterious world, Dawn gains access to train as a geisha under the strict tutelage of a renowned okasan in Japan's famous Kyoto district, after which she is allowed to entertain a client. From tea ceremonies and traditional dances to parties and drinking games, Dawn hurls herself headlong into the world of the geisha. Speaking to the clients, the okasans, the girls and their families she tackles some of the enduring myths about geisha and discovers some equally strange truths along the way.
Dawn Porter's journey around the world looking at the most extreme ways that women find love, and live, with men, finishes with a trip to the USA to enter the controversial and secretive world of polygamy. From a whole town of polygamists to a family hiding in the wilderness while the husband searches for a third wife, Dawn meets the women who share their men and asks: "Does sharing your life and husband with multiple wives really work and make everyone happy?" With a backdrop of international headlines blaring about abuse inside a Texas Mormon community, the first part of Dawn's experience sees her travel to remote Arizona to try to gain access to an extraordinary town where all the families live a polygamous lifestyle. But the news breaking about the alleged abuse in Texas has made the community nervous and Dawn must face a jury of senior polygamist wives before she's let into the town. "I couldn't have chosen a worse moment to get into a Mormon household," she admits. "…we're putting our faces out there, we're putting our lives in danger, our children in danger, our husbands our livelihoods, our homes, our family, our community", explains one senior wife. "And believe you me, Dawn, that takes courage. And I'm glad that we have ladies that have that kind of courage to stand up for our way of living. We don't say it's for everybody but we say it's for us." Against the odds and after an intense interview, Dawn is allowed access to the community and moves in with a prosperous family of three wives and some 20 children, witnessing first hand some of the positives and negatives of this unusual arrangement. Next Dawn gets a husband's point of view, meeting a man living in a remote part of the desert with his two wives and children as he seeks wife number three. Talking to the women and children in this modest setting, Dawn discovers the sacrifices people make for this uncoventional way they live and love. "The minus side is jealousy," says Dawn at t
Dawn Porter embarks on a personal journey exploring the nature of breast cancer. Meeting patients and survivors, she examines the stigmas and genetics connected to the disease.
Dawn Porter concludes her personal journey exploring the nature of breast cancer. Meeting patients and survivors, she examines the stigmas and genetics connected to the disease.
