Theorizing multi-partner relationships and sexualities – Recent work on non-monogamy and polyamory

Abstract

This review article attests to the maturation of research into consensual non-monogamy and polyamory. It provides an in-depth review of a selection of recent publications that push boundaries and pair interdisciplinary inquiry with queer sensibility and theoretical sophistication in the three areas of theorizing emotions, theorizing intimacies and sexualities and theorizing discourses and the public sphere. This work foregrounds the persistence of moral normativity and judgemental attitudes regarding consensual nonmonogamy. It underscores the power dimension around non/monogamy and reveals the complexity of contradictory dynamics of discrimination and privileging around non/ monogamous life choices. It shows how non-monogamous people deconstruct feeling rules and demonstrates the nodal function of gender and race/ethnicity in the discursive framings of different forms of non-monogamy.

Life History and Multi-Partner Mating: A Novel Explanation for Moral Stigma Against Consensual Non-monogamy

“…Day (2013) has argued that stigma against CNM is rooted in defense of a committed relationship ideology, which is the assumption that monogamous marriage is the only relationship structure that provides desirable social and relational outcomes, like loyalty, order, and quality childcare (see also Day et al, 2011). Similarly, many authors have adopted a complementary feminist lens which broadly argues that the predominance of monogamy is a sociohistorically enforced standard that has restricted women's and other social minorities' agency, sexual expression, capacity to form extended social support networks, and sexual health (Ziegler et al, 2014;Klesse, 2018;Moors, 2019). Collectively, these perspectives have inspired researchers to document and correct misinformation about CNM practices and outcomes with the hope of alleviating the harmful consequences of stigma.…”

Living Outside Protocol: Polyamorous Orientations, Bodies, and Queer Temporalities

“…In this article, we explore the lines that lead to experiences of polyamory in a society where monogamy is the norm. The marginalization of non-monogamous practices in heteronormative and mononormative contexts is explored by focusing on aspects such as the concept of mononormativity (Barker 2005;Ritchie and Barker 2006), stigma (Conley et al 2013;Hutzler et al 2016) or discrimination and privilege (Klesse 2018;Palotta-Chiarolli 2010). In our analysis, we could see that our material supports these previous studies in terms of how the interviewees talked about silence and negative reactions, but there was also a strong narrative about the possibilities that living outside of protocol offered the interviewees.…”

“…In the period from the late-1990s until the mid-2000s, special issues on nonmonogamy appeared in several journals, and Barker and Langdridge's (2010) edited anthology Understanding Non-monogamies (2010) contributed to make polyamory accessible to a wider readership. The body of empirical research on polyamory has been growing since the mid-2000s, and according to Klesse (2018), the different studies show the range of multiple locations that emerge from polyamorous identities, practices, and communities. According to Haupert et al (2017), every fifth person in the United States has experienced a consenting non-monogamous relationship.…”

“…Furthermore, previous studies have focused on various areas related to polyamory such as sexual orientation (Tweedy 2011;Haupert et al 2017), agreements and trust (Wosick-Correa 2010), jealousy (Deri 2015), emotions and intimacy (Klesse 2018), and attitudes towards polyamory and non-monogamy (Séguin 2017). Overlaps between polyamory and BDSM have also been noted in previous research (Carlström and Andersson 2019;Bauer 2010), and some studies have also shown a relationship between bisexuality and polyamory (Klesse 2006;Kolesar 2011;Sheff 2005).…”

Polyamorous Parenting: Stigma, Social Regulation, and Queer Bonds of Resistance

“…The bulk of the literature documents research in Europe, North America, and other colonial settler societies, while debates on polyamory in other regions have not yet been extensively analysed. Dominant themes explored in research into polyamory include the following: identities and identification, styles of love and intimacy, negotiation and boundary management, emotions, language innovation, gender politics, socio-legal marginalisation, and the racialisation of discourses on non/monogamy (see Barker and Langdridge, 2010;Klesse, 2018). Despite the consolidation and impressive diversification of research into polyamory and consensual non-monogamies (CNMs), there remain gaps in the literature.…”