1st Edition

Understanding Non-Monogamies

Edited By Meg Barker, Darren Langdridge Copyright 2010
324 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

324 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

324 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Most social scientific work on intimate relationships has assumed a monogamous structure, or has considered anything other than monogamy only in the context of 'infidelity'. Yet, in recent years there has been a growing interest among researchers and the public in exploring various patterns of intimacy that involve open non-monogamy. This volume gathers contributions from academics, activists,... Read more

Section 1: Situating Non-monogamies  1. Introduction  Meg Barker and Darren Langdridge  2. Deconstructing Monogamy: Boundaries, Identities, and Fluidities across Relationships  Katherine Frank and John DeLamater  Section 2: Representing Non-monogamies  3. Non-monogamy and Fiction  Esther Saxey  4. ‘Science Says She’s Gotta Have it’: Reading for Racial Resonances in Woman-Centered Poly Literature  Angela Willey  5. Discursive Constructions of Polyamory in Mono-normative Media Culture  Ani Ritchie  Section 3: Distinguishing Non-monogamies  6. Relationship Innovation in Male Couples  Barry D. Adam  7. Swinging: Pushing the Boundaries of Monogamy?  Dee McDonald  8. There Were Three in the Bed: Discursive Desire and the Sex Lives of Swingers  Shalanda Phillips  9. Geeks, Goddesses, and Green Eggs: Political Mobilization and the Cultural Locus of the Polyamorous Community in the San Francisco Bay Area  Hadar Aviram  10. Social Sex: Young Women and Early Sexual Relationships  Maya Lavie-Ajayi, Colette D.R. Jones and Lucy Russell  Section 4: Intersecting Non-monogamies  11. Paradoxes in Gender Relations: [Post] Feminism and Bisexual Polyamory  Christian Klesse  12. Trans and Non-Monogamies  Christina Richards  13. ‘Many Partners, Many Friends’: Gay and Bisexual Mormon Men’s Views of Non-Monogamous Relationships  José Miguel Montenegro  14. Non-Monogamy in Queer BDSM Communities: Putting the Sex back into Alternative Relationship Practices and Discourse  Robin Bauer  15. Asexual Relationships: What Does Asexuality Have to Do with Polyamory?  Kristin S. Scherrer  16. Disability And Polyamory: Exploring the Edges of Inter-Dependence, Gender and Queer Issues in Non-Monogamous Relationships  Alessandra (Alex) Iantaffi  Section 5: Extending Non-monogamies  17. Strategies in Polyamorous Parenting  Elisabeth Sheff  18. ‘To Pass, Border or Pollute’: Polyfamilies Go to School  Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli  19. Developing a ‘Responsible’ Foster Care Praxis: Poly as a Framework for Examining Power and Propriety in Family Contexts  Damien W. Riggs  Section 6: Counselling Non-monogamies 20. The Power Mechanisms of Jealousy  Pepper Mint  21. Making Friends with Jealousy: Therapy with Polyamorous Clients  Dossie Easton  22. Promiscuities: Politics, Imagination, Spirituality and Hypocrisy  Andrew Samuels  Section 7: Theorising Non-monogamies  23. Conditions of Freedom in Practices of Non-monogamous Commitment  Mark Finn  24. Sex, Space and Discourse: Non/monogamy and Intimate Privilege in the Public Sphere  Nathan Rambukkana  25. What’s Queer about Non-monogamy Now?  Eleanor Wilkinson  26. Love without Borders? Intimacy, Identity and the State of Compulsory Monogamy  Jamie Heckert

Biography

Meg Barker is a lecturer in psychology at the Open University and a sex and relationship therapist. She and Darren Langdridge have published Safe, Sane, Consensual: Contemporary Perspectives on Sadomasochism with Palgrave and are now editing a new journal, Psychology & Sexuality, with Taylor & Francis. Meg's research publications focus on sexualities and relationships.

Darren Langdridge is a senior lecturer in psychology at the Open University and a UKCP accredited existential psychotherapist. His research expertise is in sexualities and hermeneutic phenomenology. He has co-edited several books including Safe, Sane, Consensual, and has also authored a number of other books including Phenomenological Psychology: Theory, Research and Method (Pearson Education). He is currently co-editing the new journal Psychology & Sexuality.