Monday, August 10, 2009

Polyamory -- Perfectly Plural Placements

We've all heard plenty about Gay marriage and the great debate about the definition of marriage- but are you ready for Polyamory? Albert Mohler writes:
Polyamory, reports Newsweek, is having a "coming-out-party." Polyamory is the current "term of art" applied to "families" or "clusters" comprised of multiple sexual partners. As Newsweek explains, this is not exactly polygamy, because marriage is not the issue. Advocates of polyamory argue that their lifestyle is not "open marriage." Indeed, they define their movement in terms of the moral principle of "ethical nonmonogamy," defined as "engaging in loving, intimate relationships with more than one person -- based upon the knowledge and consent of everyone involved."
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"....Perhaps the best way to understand this new movement is to understand it as a natural consequence of subverting marriage. We have largely normalized adultery, serialized marriage, separated marriage from reproduction and childbearing, and accepted divorce as a mechanism for liberation. Once this happens, boundary after boundary falls as sexual regulation virtually disappears among those defined as 'consenting adults.'"
If Gay marriage is fully accepted in American society and culture, there will be no logical barrier to polyamory in its various forms also achieving legal status.

1 comment:

  1. Barry,
    Polygamy (?) I had never heard of it before. But I read your blurb. "Ethical Nonmonogamy"
    wouldn't that be an oximoron?
    It reminds me of the excuse that the Pimp gives the police when he is arrested. These women are all his "lovers" and he loves all of them back. He just wants his cut of the money they haul in from pandering their 'resources'.
    I think that this would just bring on more problems as when everyone keeps track of the time their lover spends with them as well as the time they spend with others and should their lover spend more time with any of the others...I think that there would be tons of problems in 'paradise'.
    Not to mention the diesease factor ...all of the std's that there are out there. I suppose that they would have to have a special "health care package" to quarentee that they are disease free or something of that nature.
    FAY

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