The grip of pandemic mononormativity in Austria and Germany

Balancing risk, intimacy and (non)compliance: a qualitative study of sex across household during COVID-19 social restrictions

“…Study findings offer a new perspective on how individuals assess and weigh up risks in sexual decision-making at a time of social restriction. Arguably, in Britain, as in many other countries, pandemic restrictions minimised the needs of those who were not in heteronormative, co-habiting couple relationships, leaving many feeling unrecognised by new social regulations (Williams 2021 ; Rothmüller 2021 ). This includes our sample, who were single and seeking new relationships or in non-cohabiting relationships at the time of pandemic restrictions, and thus for whom social restrictions demanded greater personal sacrifice.…”

“…The ‘choice’ for these individuals was typically between abstinence or rule breaking. In the making of rules, it was apparent that their circumstances were side-lined by a dominant view of ‘households’ as family units and married/cohabiting couples (Williams 2021 ; Döring 2020 ; Rothmüller 2021 ), despite the fact that in the UK 40% of people do not live in a couple, rising to 71% amongst 16 to 29-year-olds (ONS. 2020 ).…”

More than Two… but not Right Now: Interpretations and Responses to Covid-19 Measures on Reddit for Two Communities of Consensual Non-Monogamy

“…Indeed, on Reddit, polyamorists more often mentioned feeling lonely or alone when describing their response to Covid-19, a feeling less prevalent among swingers. Findings from prior research have suggested that increased social connectivity before and during lockdown periods was associated with lower levels of stress, worrying, and loneliness (Kovacs et al, 2021 ; Nitschke et al, 2020 ), and that during the pandemic face-to-face and same-home partnerships were often prioritized over partnerships involving distances and different homes (Rothmüller, 2021 ). Thus, reactions to Covid-19 within the CNM community may vary with the dynamics of their members’ cohabitation.…”

“…Because people who are polyamorous may have close relationships or engage in sexual activity with those who live outside their household (Manley & Goldberg, 2021 ; Silva Camargo et al, 2022 ), social distancing may have posed particular problems for enacting those relationships in a fulfilling way (Hakim et al, 2022 ). Recent investigations have drawn a comparison between LGBTQ and polyamorous identities during periods of Covid-19, with social pandemic restrictions creating a pressure toward a “coronamonogamy” prioritizing a single primary relationship (Hakim et al, 2022 ; Rothmüller, 2021 ). Unsurprisingly, a recent qualitative investigation of CNM parents found that parents spent less time with non-cohabiting partners during the May-December 2020 period of the pandemic (Manley & Goldberg, 2021 ).…”

Moral Exposures, Public Appearances: Contested Presences of Non-Normative Sex in Pandemic Berlin

“…Sexual intimacies and practices were not exempt from this development (Dawson and Dennis, 2020;Schnepf and Probst, 2020), as they found themselves governed by new rules and regulations, as well as being delegated to coupledom and the privacy of the household (McKenzie, 2020;Newerla, 2021). These emerging 'pandemic mononormativities' (Rothmüller, 2021) also call into question the taken-for-granted place of casual and transactional sex in Berlin's cityscape, whose material presences in the famously sexually liberal capital almost entirely disappeared due to the governance of urban spaces during the pandemic. Yet, as the example of Pornceptual shows, these disappearances and regulations did not remain uncontested by communities centred around non-normative sexual practices.…”