hyperskeptic
New member
A thread on another forum has brought up a question that has troubled my mind from time to time.
People who think of themselves as polyamorous constitute a small minority in societies in which monogamy is entrenched in attitudes and institutions. Not only that, but we are a minority that would be reviled more than almost any other, were we to come to the attention of many in the mainstream.
There may be a tendency to gravitate toward one another, to seek one another out for mutual support and mutual protection, to circle the wagons.
Add to this the fact that life in modern societies has become more and more about privacy, less and less about community engagement. We have reduced most of our incidental interactions with others to economic transactions, and those increasingly at an anonymous distance. Socially, we have retreated first into our living rooms and private clubs, then into social media and various online cliques.
In some ways of telling the story, polyamory really only got started as this kind of chosen community: people sought and found one another online, and networks began to form. This forum is an example.
Here's what I wonder, though. I know a handful of people whose leisre-time social circles - that is, social connections outside family, work, and school - consist almost entirely of people who are both poly and kinky.
That's a small sample, but I wonder if it is indicative of a trend, perhaps even an innate tendency in polyamory as it has developed.
So, thinking about your social interactions other than those associated with family, work, and school, and aside from time spent with partners/lovers/SOs, how much of your social time is spent interacting with other poly folk, whether online or in person?
This is an entirely unscientific poll, probably ill-structured and otherwise flawed, but I hope it might get an interesting conversation going.
People who think of themselves as polyamorous constitute a small minority in societies in which monogamy is entrenched in attitudes and institutions. Not only that, but we are a minority that would be reviled more than almost any other, were we to come to the attention of many in the mainstream.
There may be a tendency to gravitate toward one another, to seek one another out for mutual support and mutual protection, to circle the wagons.
Add to this the fact that life in modern societies has become more and more about privacy, less and less about community engagement. We have reduced most of our incidental interactions with others to economic transactions, and those increasingly at an anonymous distance. Socially, we have retreated first into our living rooms and private clubs, then into social media and various online cliques.
In some ways of telling the story, polyamory really only got started as this kind of chosen community: people sought and found one another online, and networks began to form. This forum is an example.
Here's what I wonder, though. I know a handful of people whose leisre-time social circles - that is, social connections outside family, work, and school - consist almost entirely of people who are both poly and kinky.
That's a small sample, but I wonder if it is indicative of a trend, perhaps even an innate tendency in polyamory as it has developed.
So, thinking about your social interactions other than those associated with family, work, and school, and aside from time spent with partners/lovers/SOs, how much of your social time is spent interacting with other poly folk, whether online or in person?
This is an entirely unscientific poll, probably ill-structured and otherwise flawed, but I hope it might get an interesting conversation going.
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