Comunication: Polyamory as a Liminal Hotspot: Empirical Case

Sexualities, 2019

Although consensual non-monogamies have grown in exposure and popularity among both the public and academics, they remain largely marginalized and stigmatized. While some research has examined individuals’ perceptions of non-monogamies as a whole, few have focused specifically on perceptions of polyamory. The aim of this study was to explore and render explicit such attitudes and perceptions using an inductive approach to research. Online unsolicited narratives were sought for the purpose of this study. A total of 482 comments posted in response to three articles on the topic of polyamory were collected and analyzed using thematic analysis. Five overarching themes were identified: polyamory as 1) valid and beneficial; 2) unsustainable; 3) perverse, amoral, and unappealing; 4) acceptable; and 5) deficient. The findings provide insight on individuals’ reactions to polyamorous relationships and beliefs surrounding monogamy, and are further discussed in light of previous research on stigma, and of contemporary discourses on relationships, love, and commitment.

The emerging concept of relational orientations makes shifts in sexual identity difficult to accommodate and may mask women’s actual sexual practice. Drawing on a qualitative study of 40 bisexual women in Toronto, this paper argues that polyamory and monogamy are strategies by which bisexual women explore their sexuality, rather than cohesive identities or behavioural orientations. Nearly a quarter of the monogamous-identified women reported having previously identified as polyamorous. Among total participants, 12.5% reported shifting between monogamy and polyamory more than once. These shifts enable women to manage and negotiate their visibility as bisexuals. There was a significant disjoint between self-identity and sexual behaviour. The majority of the polyamorous women were not dating multiple partners at the time of the interview, while over a quarter of the monogamous women reported having threesomes in their current relationship. Viewing monogamy and polyamory as strategic identities can help health care practitioners more accurately assess their clients’ needs and risks, within a social determinants of mental health framework.

Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory, 2014

The verdict is in: We (well, at least most of us) are guilty of psychologically suffocating our significant others. We thought long and hard about this verdict recently delivered by Finkel, Hui, Carswell, and Larson (this issue). In this commentary, we explore how central tenets of embarking on loving and/or sexual relationships with others-outside of one's primary relationship-might increase oxygen flow to monogamous relationships.

Capital University Law Review, 2003

This is an accepted article that has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication in Personality and Social Psychology Review but has yet to undergo copy-editing and proof correction. Please inquire if citing this article for more up-to-date information.

Stemming from the auto-ethnographic telling of a round-table organized by a lesbian-focused activist group in Lisbon, Portugal, the authors reflect on the intersections between doing research, spreading that research, doing activism and working with / listening to sexual minorities as a way of critically involving the

Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev., 2002

This article highlights the ways in which cultural, relational, and therapeutic power can affect polyamorous relationships and the therapeutic process. In therapy, focusing on the power narratives that polyamorous partners might experience can aid in challenging mononormativity while creating space for a variety of relational orientations. Power processes are presented as occurring on three levels: social discourse (without), relational meaningmaking (within), and therapeutic practice (in between). A case study is used to evaluate these processes and implications are provided for clinicians working with polyamorous families.

2009

This study contributes to the development of nascent bisexual theology by examining bisexual women’s lives in relation to the stereotype that bisexuals desire concurrent male and female partners. Building on qualitative email interviews with forty bisexual women in the Greater Toronto Area, this thesis finds that monogamy and polyamory function as strategic identities. If bisexual theology is to speak authentically to the needs of bisexual women, it must provide a critical analysis of these identities, understand and respond to their role in shaping communities, moral agency and theological knowledge.

This Article examines, from a theoretical standpoint, the possibility of expanding the definition of "sexual orientation" in employment discrimination statutes to include other disfavored sexual preferences, specifically polyamory. First, it examines the current, very narrow definition of sexual orientation, which is limited to orientations that are based on the sex of those to whom one is attracted, and explores some of the conceptual and functional problems with the current definition. Next the Article looks at the possibility of adding polyamory to current statutory definitions of sexual orientation, examining whether polyamory is a sufficiently embedded identity to be considered a sexual orientation and the degree of discrimination that polyamorists face. After concluding that such an expansion would be reasonable, the Article briefly outlines some issues for further investigation, including potential policy implications and the conflicting evidence as to whether polyamorists want specific legal protections.