Monogamy

This article juxtaposes the discursive strategies of two groups of heterosexual men in the context of non-monogamous internet-mediated dating in Belgium, notably men who are open about their extra-dyadic sexual practices and ‘cheating’ men. The analysis shows that regardless of the men's use of openness or discretion to construct narratives of sexual identity, morality and care, their accounts seem to be deeply intertwined with monogamist and gendered ideas on sex, care and commitment, which serves to define a largely uncaring and consumeristic dating culture. The article argues that attentiveness to power inequalities should be the main focus of ‘ethical’ non-monogamy.

Based on ethnographic research in the Republic of Benin, this article explores how Pentecostal teachings on marriage and the management of sexual pleasure contribute to shaping converts' moral selves. For Pentecostals, fidelity towards God, when single and fidelity between partners, once married, is presented as the ideal model of partnership to which every " Born-Again " should aspire. In the context where polygamous unions are socially accepted, Pentecostal pastors teach that a satisfactory sexual life restricted to marriage is the means of building successful monogamous unions. However, sexual satisfaction might not always guarantee marital success, especially when people face problems of infertility. The author suggests that the disciplinary regimes that these teachings promote contribute to shaping new modes of intimacy, which are compatible with societal changes but often contradict the extant social norms and ideals of reproduction. Moral dilemmas arising from this tension are the key to understanding how Pentecostal Christianity shapes the moral self. The article addresses how Pentecostals in Benin navigate and negotiate cultural continuities and discontinuities in relation to church authority and family life.

In Love and Freedom, Jorge Ferrer proposes a paradigm shift in how romantic relationships are conceptualized, a step forward in the evolution of modern relationships. In the same way that the transgender movement surmounted the gender binary, Ferrer defines how a parallel step can—and should—be taken with the relational style binary. This book offers the first systematic discussion of relationship modes beyond monogamy and polyamory, as well as introduces the notion of “relational freedom” as the capability to choose one’s relational style free from biological, psychological, and sociocultural conditionings.

To achieve these goals, Ferrer first discusses a number of critical categories—specifically, monopride/polyphobia, and polypride/monophobia—that mediate the contemporary “mono–poly wars,” that is, the predicament of mutual competition among monogamists and polyamorists. The ideological nature of these “mono–poly wars” is demonstrated through a review of available empirical literature on the psychological health and relationship quality of monogamous and polyamorous individuals and couples. Then, after showing how monogamy and polyamory ultimately reinforce each other, Ferrer articulates three relational pathways to living in-between, through, and beyond the mono/poly binary: fluidity, hybridity, and transcendence. Moving beyond that binary opens a fuzzy, liminal, and multivocal relational space that Ferrer calls novogamy.

In this groundbreaking book, readers will learn practical tools to not only transform jealousy, but also enhance their relational freedom while being aware of key issues of diversity and social justice. They will also learn novel criteria to evaluate the success of their intimate relationships, and be introduced to a transformed vision of romantic love beyond both monocentrism and emerging polynormativities.

Pionniers dans l’occupation des territoires africains, les missionnaires engagent très tôt dans ces espaces une œuvre d’évangélisation dans la laquelle la réalisation des projets sociaux trouve une expression particulière. Cette œuvre des missions rencontre bientôt les aspirations d’une administration coloniale qui s’en inspire pour légitimer la conquête, la domination, la spoliation et l’exploitation multiforme du continent. Les colons emboitent ainsi le pas aux missions chrétiennes, dans le combat contre de nombreuses pratiques culturelles locales à l’instar de la polygamie qu’ils considèrent avant tout comme « un fléau qui ruine démographiquement et socialement la race noire ». La lutte engagée par les Européens consiste à appliquer en Afrique, des structures familiales à l’image de celles de l’Occident. À partir de l’étude de cas de la lutte contre la polygamie dans les territoires dominés d’Afrique équatoriale, cette contribution met en valeur les interconnexions entre logiques missionnaires et ambitions colonialistes. Pour «éradiquer» la polygamie et répondre à une exigence occidentalo-chrétienne de famille monogamique, les Occidentaux favorisent le renforcement d’un enseignement religieux. Ils mettent en place des mesures de «protection sociale», inspirées des modèles messianiques. Sanctions sévères et encouragements financiers sont autant de mesures disciplinaires mises en œuvre pour diffuser à grande échelle cet idéal culturel.
Mots clés : Lutte contre la polygamie, évangélisation, administration coloniale, famille monogamique.

Die Hofplätze in den bandkeramischen Siedlungen besaßen ein Generationen übergreifendes,  landwirtschaftliches Eigentum (Garten, Feld- und Waldflächen mit Sammel-, Weide- und Jagdrechten). Die Gesellschaft war patrilokal, patrilinear und monogam; die Vererbung erfolgte also in der männlichen Linie. Da die Häuser in 500 Jahren prinzipiell gleich groß blieben, fand keine Erbteilung statt: Es herrschte, modern gesprochen, das "Anerbenrecht" und nicht die "Realteilung".

This Article analyzes the recent covenant marriage movement in America, and its deep roots in biblical teachings. It shows that the Hebrew Prophets, especially Malachi, described the covenant between God and his chosen people of Israel as a model for human marriages, featuring courtship and public celebration of the marriage, mutual love and faithful monogamy, procreation and nurture of children, and limited divorce and an openness to reconciliation. This idea of marriage as a covenant of the whole community is much more prominent in the Bible than the idea of marriage as a sacrament of the church, and it provides a better bridge concept between theology and law, traditional and modern accounts of the institution of marriage. Recent Catholic and Protestant statements alike now use the covenant idea of marriage, which has resonance in Jewish and Islamic contexts as well.

In this paper, we utilize a critical feminist lens to analyze the advantages and disadvantages found within two different romantic relationship configurations: monogamy and polyamory. While visibility of polyamorous relationships has increased in recent years, there is still a lack of information and a plethora of misinformation concerning non-monogamous romantic relationship dynamics (Conley, Moors, Matsick, & Ziegler, 2012; Conley, Ziegler, Moors, Matsick, & Valentine, 2012). One such notion is that polyamory is differentially damaging to women vis-a-vis men.  From a phenomenological perspective, sociocultural values dictate that women, unlike men, are prescribed to be dependent upon monogamy in order to define their selfhood; and indeed, research has provided evidence in support of this idea, as women are more apt to be offended by the idea of concurrent multiple relationships and are less likely to report a willingness to engage in these types of relationships than men are (Moor...

This paper analyses online texts concerning the supposed ‘rules’ and ‘etiquette’ of heterosexual casual sex, exploring how ‘ideal’ casual sex was constructed – as object and practice. We examine how casual sex was constituted by authors who positioned themselves as knowledgeable and/or expert in relation to casual sex and demonstrate
the discourses that their accounts drew on in constructing archetypal casual sex. Our
analysis is situated within feminist/critical theorising and debates regarding the institution
of heterosexuality and, in particular, construction of monogamy as ‘ideal’ when it comes to heterosexual relationships. We argue that casual sex was constituted as not a natural act through the specific instructions of how to ‘do casual sex right’. We outline
the construction of an attraction imperative in relation to casual sex, its hierarchies of respectability, and address what an analysis about casual sex tells us about contemporary heterosexuality. This paper demonstrates that although casual sex could possibly offer an alternative to the currently pervasive mononormativity, it fails to provide this in accounts of ‘ideal’ casual sex as relayed in the public arena.

This article investigates whether Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 same-sex marriage decision, supports or undermines a right to polygamous marriage. First, it shows that Obergefell defined marriage as a relationship that provides stability for individuals, couples, children, and society. Next, the article provides a historical overview of monogamy, demonstrating that it has slowly prevailed over polygamy during the past 2,000 years because two-spouse marriages strengthen families and society. The article ultimately concludes that polygamy does not comport with Obergefell’s definition of marriage, and thus the Court should hold that there is no constitutional right to polygamous marriage.

Theoretically drive by queer theory, this paper examines the rate of heteronormativity in the advertisements of a gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine, the Advocate, over three decades. The findings reveal that the advertisements increasingly portrayed values and norms that that fit into heteronormative institutions. This paper raises questions about how we as a society define progress and change, and how we define it can marginalize different groups of people within the LGBTQ community.

La rivoluzione proletaria deve servirsi del duro e cruento arnese dello Stato di classe, e servirsene a fondo, con una dittatura la cui utilità è in ragione del proclamato impiego, non mascherato da menzogne di tolleranze e democrazie, prima che venga lo stadio in cui lo relegheremo, giusta Engels, nel museo dei vecchiumi. Ma dell'arnese Battilocchio, divenuto davvero sudicio e repugnante, possiamo liberarcene prima della caduta del capitalismo. Appena la classe proletaria appare sulla scena della storia, essa può e deve sostituire la "forma" del Capo con quella sua propria: il partito di classe. Perciò Lenin tante volte ricorda la frase del Manifesto: i postulati dei comunisti non poggiano affatto sopra idee o principii, scoperti da qualche rinnovatore della società.

Некогда я писал о внебрачных копуляциях у птиц
какпобочном следствии дезорганизации процесса взаимного подбора партнёров , нападая на социобиологические представления о том, что внебрачные копуляции имеют адаптивное объяснение, ибо приносят их участникам некий дополнительный выигрыш про сравнению с «верными» особями. И доказывал, что адюльтер у птиц (в отличие, скажем, от нас грешных)не измена, а лишь беспорядок, следствие недостаточной оптимизации статистического подбора партнёров в популяциях соответствующих видов.
И вот недавно наткнулся наобзорную работу Akсay & Rougharden (2007a), которая обобщает известные данные по внебрачным копуляциям и внебрачным потомкам у птиц и показывает, что нет,
социобиологические представления не оправдываются – в большинстве случаев птицы, вступающие во
внебрачные копуляции, ничего не выигрывают «для себя».
По крайней мере они не получают «генетический выигрыш», гипотеза о котором доминирует в социобиологических представлениях о природе моногамии и внебрачных копуляций у птиц вот уже 20 лет (обсуждаются 2 варианта такого выигрыша – гипотезы «хороших генов» и «совместимых генов»).
Оказалось, что нет, ни поиском «хороших генов», ни поиском «совместимых генов» приспособленность не повысишь и распространённость внебрачных копуляций не объяснишь, и вообще для понимания природы явления нужно думать в другом ключе, противоположном по отношению к социобиологическую.
И вторая работа данных авторов (Akсay & Rougharden, 2007b) показывает в каком: если от внебрачных копуляций и возможен выигрыш, то только в плане групповой, а не индивидуальной адаптации, работающей «на благо» популяционного воспроизводства в целом, а «на благо» отдельных особей лишь
иногда, когда система устойчива и условия хорошие.

Frost and Gola (2015) offer empirical evidence that same-sex and different-sex relationship partners are similar in their experiences of intimacy and, as a result, the meaning of marriage will not fundamentally change with the legalization of same-sex marriage. In this commentary, we offer another perspective: given the unique aspects of same-sex relationships, we argue that the meaning of marriage may indeed change as same-sex partners legally wed. We extend Frost and Gola (2015) by considering the limitations of respectability politics when advocating for same-sex relationships and by shedding light on those who may seek to change the meaning of marriage.

First project of 2022.
#theater #performance #sexy #sex #love #domesticlife #monogamy

Project Y Theatre
And here we are officially announcing the playwrights in the MONOLOGUE SLAM:
Suzanne Bradbeer
Rachael Carnes
Alexis Craig-Hart
Catalina Florescu
Julienne Hairston
Judith Leora
Francesca Pazniokas
Lia Romeo
Sally Seitz
What a great group ---- we will let you know when you can see them up and running!

Em memória de um grande e lendário amor

"Põe-me como selo sobre o teu coração, como selo sobre o teu braço, porque o amor é mais forte que a morte". (Cantares 8:6a)

Em uma padaria, tomando café, tratávamos sobre viagem de um dia a Alcobaça. A propósito, minha mulher lia para mim uma das versões da história de amor de Dom Pedro I de Portugal (não o do Brasil) por Dona Inês de Castro. Quando levantou os olhos, viu que eu estava chorando naquele local tão incomum para externar sentimos. As histórias que se convertem em lendas são sempre as melhores. De amor tão proibido, esta é emblemática.
A mais marcante história de amor de Portugal é, sem dúvida, a do proibido amor entre o infante Dom Pedro e Inês de Castro que era dama de companhia de sua mulher, Dona Constança Manuel. Pedro, sendo casado, tinha encontros românticos com Inês nos jardins da Quinta das Lágrimas. Com ela teve filhos, considerados bastardos. Constança, esposa do infante Dom Pedro, veio a falecer em 1345. Com seu falecimento, ele passou a viver com Inês. O caso de amor de Pedro e Inês, que já há muito era conhecido de todos, causava escândalo à Corte Portuguesa e contrariava os "castos costumes da época". Seu pai, o rei Dom Afonso IV, sentiu-se afrontado e condenou veementemente aquela união.
Resistindo à censura pública e à desaprovação paterna aquele amor sobreviveu. Pedro e Inês viveram alguns anos em Paços de Santa Clara, em Coimbra, com seus três filhos. Mas o clamor contra o amor proibido só aumentava entre cortesãos de modo que, em janeiro de 1355, Dom Afonso decidiu mandar assassinar Inês de Castro. Pedro enlouqueceu de dor pela perda da mulher de sua vida e liderou uma revolta contra seu pai. Nunca perdoou Dom Afonso pela morte de sua amada Inês. Diz a lenda que quando foi entronizado em 1357, Dom Pedro mandou prender e matar os assassinos de Inês, arrancando-lhes o coração.

Monogamy is not a practice, but a system and a way of thinking. The monogamous mind extends from our romantic relationships with our national identities in a historic development linked to capitalism and colonialism. Monogamy is the latest step in the binary sex-gender system and must be observed as a part of it. Following the works of, among others, Michel Foucault, Arthur Evans, and Silvia Federici, as well as Frantz Fanon and Cedric Rodinson in colonialism, we can observe how the implementation of compulsory monogamy took place and where. Also, which are the key points to observe when we analyse forms of non-monogamy in the Occidental context.

A jurisprudência do Supremo Tribunal Federal firmou a impossibilidade
de reconhecimento de uniões estáveis concomitantes ou paralelas, reduzindo a
união estável que foi constituída em segundo lugar ao status de concubinato. A
referida postura pressupõe a concepção do casamento monogâmico como forma
suprema de manifestação da garantia institucional da família. Essa conclusão
torna imprescindível o enfrentamento da questão das garantias institucionais em
qualquer discussão séria sobre o tema das famílias paralelas, uma vez que a monogamia
é concebida como componente do núcleo essencial de qualquer entidade
familiar. Observa-se tendência de atualização do conteúdo material da garantia
institucional da família, para ampliar a proteção constitucional às mais diversas
formas de estruturação do afeto. Ao final, conclui-se que marco teórico liberal e
radicalmente antidogmático, que partisse de uma perspectiva não monolítica da
família, fundada na mais ampla liberdade afetiva, acompanhada de seu correlato a
responsabilidade integral pelas uniões afetivas constituídas, dispensaria o instrumental
das garantias institucionais, por outro lado permitindo a proteção de todas
as modalidades de família pela importância que essas formações assumem na vida
das pessoas, sem que a sua garantia sirva para hipostasiar valores hegemônicos de
uma forma de vida tradicional. Tal abordagem poderia permitir o reconhecimento
de eficácia jurídica ao paralelismo afetivo

This paper is a research proposal written for a masters-level research class investigating the lived experience of adult bisexual women and reviewing five recent empirical studies in the relevant literature. 

While it is difficult to determine the specific prevalence rate of bisexuality in the United States due to inconsistencies in self-reporting, binegativity, and stigmatization, the Williams Institute estimates that about 1.8% of individuals in the United States—mostly women—identify as bisexual.  Most of these bisexual women struggle in the formation and performance of their sexual identities due to three main factors: (1) ‘choice’—social pressure to choose and conform to either a heterosexual or homosexual identity, (2) ‘invisibility’—difficulty maintaining bisexual visibility, especially in monogamous relationships, and (3) ‘marginalization’—stress and shame resulting from social marginalization.  This study seeks to explore the lived experience of these women and investigate and expand upon these themes found in the recent literature.

"More than just Monogamy" takes a serious look at traditional marriage forms in a variety of modern world cultures. Readers will discover that lifetime monogamy - or even serial monogamy - may not be the one true path for a lot of individuals and families throughout the world. Readers are afforded a different view of love, relationships, responsibility, and family than they may have experienced in their own lives.

The Canadian legal system engenders and polices embodiment by writing into the law what a normative Canadian body looks like and does. Analysing the constitutional reference question, Reference re: Section 293 of the Criminal Code, this article attempts to link why and how monogamous bodies are produced as normative and natural in the ways scientific objectivity is valorised as the most legitimate form of knowledge production. Supplementing Suzanne Lenon's palimpsestic reading of the Polygamy Reference with a somatechnical emphasis on embodiment and epistemology via Jasbir Puar's articulation of assemblage, this article argues that the normative monogamous body has and continues to operate as a marker of Canadian identity and as part of the perpetual processes of nation building.

This chapter discusses the recent literature  on “open non-monogamies,” or non-monogamous arrangements that are known-about by at the very least all the involved intimate partners. (This specifically excludes a consideration of the growing parallel literature on “secret non-monogamies” (e.g., infidelity, adultery and cheating) addressed in relation to monogamy and marriage in Ziegler, Conley, Moors, Matsick, & Rubin, Monogamy, this volume.)
This growing field comprises work on polyamory (discursively “ethical” or consensual non-monogamy); on polygamy (plural marriage, usually—but not exclusively—polygynous: Muslim, Christian and other); on swinging (sometimes known as “The Lifestyle”, a subculture devoted to casual open sex); and on non-monogamies outside of these three major formulations. This last category includes open marriages and relationships; alternative marital arrangements, sometimes referred to as “swapping”  or co-marital sex; “friends with benefits”; group sex (e.g., threesomes, orgies); open-sex commune experiments (e.g., the Oneida intentional community); and otherwise-unnamed non-monogamous intimate practices such as those that can occur in some lesbian, gay, bisexual and kink subcultures. Finally, it also includes work that considers non-monogamies broadly across these categories. These practices have different histories, etymologies, facets and politics. Some of these practices are thousands of years old, some are merely decades old and some are just being fleshed out; some have their origins in religion or spirituality, others in a staunch and iconoclastic secularism. Taken together, however, they form a present and undeniable facet of contemporary intimacy that has been growing in prominence and significance in the public sphere and public culture since at least the early 1990s (Rambukkana, in press). Engaging with open non-monogamies is no longer something relegated to societal margins in the life of western societies; it has shifted to be a part of the centre—albeit a part that sits somewhat uneasily with current normative frameworks. With definite parallels to the more-firmly-established shift that brought LGBT* and queer  lifestyles into the mainstream and that have made same-sex marriage a reality (or present struggle) in a growing number of countries, this cultural movement creates tensions and new problematics in psychology and cognate fields.
Major issues relating to psychology involve the following: a) The status of open non-monogamies in relation to normative social psychology (with implications within applied psychology for individual, “couples” and family practitioners; b) The theoretical questioning of the notion of healthy romantic love between more than two people; c) The effects of non-monogamy (and polygamy particularly) on women; d) The effects of multiple partner parenting on children, communities and society; and e) The psychological exploration of the minutia of non-monogamous living (e.g., the psychology of overcoming jealousy, and of non-normative relationship dynamics/structures such as “compersion,” “sister wives,” “triads” and “New Relationship Energy” ).
Debates within this literature are linked to divides such as those between mononormative and anti-mononormative perspectives ; on all of swinging, polygamy and polyamory; between activist and critical approaches to polyamory; between pro-legalizing and pro-criminalization approaches to polygamy, and between and among multiple forms of open non-monogamy (for example, privileging polyamory over polygamy and swinging, or the identification of “non-monogamous” over “polyamorous”).
Implications are discussed for such wider fields as counselling and therapy, law, media and representation, urban and social planning, and politics; and for academic fields such as Sociology, LGBT* and queer Studies, Kink studies, Critical Race Studies, Women’s Studies, History, Religious Studies, Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Politics and Medicine. 
The future of work on open non-monogamies is also briefly touched on including new categories of analysis and emergent forms such as “the new monogamy”, polygamy legalization, “non-monogamous” as identification, poly children growing up, further impacts of new marriage legislation in different countries, more cross-cultural and cross-categorical work, and the impact of changing demographics.

Poliamor é um nome dado à possibilidade de se estabelecer mais de uma relação amorosa ao mesmo tempo com a concordância de todos os envolvidos. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o ideal de conjugalidade dos pesquisados, as formas de relacionamento? Tratar-se-ia de uma oposição completa ou haveria possibilidade de conciliação entre daquilo que são e acreditam. Entretanto, três elementos favorecem a desestabilização desta dicotomia: a existência de "igualdade". Esta pesquisa foi realizada a partir da análise de quadro redes sociais poliamoristas, de entrevistas em profundidade com adeptos e da observação participante em 'poliencontros'.

La singularidad/monogamia, entendida como el hecho de mantener una relación erótico- afectiva de convivencia singular1, excluye la multiplicidad de relaciones de la misma naturaleza en forma simultánea. Al ser acogida por las leyes religiosas y civiles, la singularidad/monogamia para las parejas unidas por matrimonio o unión marital de hecho se tornó en una obligación aunada a diversos derechos, entre ellos, los económicos.
Este artículo se basa en la ley y la jurisprudencia de las altas cortes de Colombia para incitar a la reflexión sobre los efectos legales que implica la no singularidad/monogamia sobre la pareja estable y permanente, que en su opción de proyecto de vida, basado en el libre desarrollo de la personalidad, decide convivir en unión marital de hecho, la no singularidad/monogamia, además de conllevar una pérdida emocional y afectiva, implica la pérdida de los derechos personales y patrimoniales que la ley les otorga a quienes, sin estar casados, están unidos por lazos de afecto, solidaridad y ayuda mutua.

From a few scrolls found in Qumran, emerges the law that commands a strict monogamy. This law is considered by many scholars to be unusual in the polygamous Jewish tradition. This article shows that monogamy was an ideological stance, which existed alongside polygamous practice, throughout the entire Second Temple period.  This idea is attested in Wisdom literature in its special use of the concept, "the wife of one's youth," as well as by the use of scriptural verses and their interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the NT and in rabbinic literature.

This Article analyzes the recent covenant marriage movement in America, and its deep roots in biblical teachings. It shows that the Hebrew Prophets, especially Malachi, described the covenant between God and his chosen people of Israel as a model for human marriages, featuring courtship and public celebration of the marriage, mutual love and faithful monogamy, procreation and nurture of children, and limited divorce and an openness to reconciliation. This idea of marriage as a covenant of the whole community is much more prominent in the Bible than the idea of marriage as a sacrament of the church, and it provides a better bridge concept between theology and law, traditional and modern accounts of the institution of marriage. Recent Catholic and Protestant statements alike now use the covenant idea of marriage, which has resonance in Jewish and Islamic contexts as well.