I cannot recall what prompted this thought a while back. I made a note to write a post about it and now I am having trouble coalescing it into a single coherent thought.
I think it started from an observation on the Poly Weekly podcast (I cannot recall the exact episode, but somewhere in the mid-100s) that even while being single you can still identify as poly... be poly.
What occurred to me is that there are many hot-button topics that revolve around the same pattern. Monogamous/non-monogamous, straight/gay vs. bi/pan-sexual where two sides are being presented as opposites... when they really aren't. At all.
It has the smell of the politics of fear about it to me.
Monogamy and polyamory aren't opposites... you can be polyamorous but be single, or having chosen for a single relationship for the time being. That doesn't stop one from being polyamorous. Polyamory provides a wider range of choices that includes all the options available within monogamy.
Similarly, bi-sexuality (pardon the narrow term) is not the opposite to singular gay/straight orientations. It is possible to be bi-sexual, but choose to be involved with only a single gender. Even if for a lifetime. That doesn't take away from the fact that at any time a different choice could have been made. Bi-sexuality (or even more so, pan-sexuality) provides a wider range of choices that includes all the options available within being straight or gay.
Similarly pro-life and pro-choice... for all the effort politicians go to make it sound that these are opposite sides, being pro-choice does not mean that you necessarily will exercise the choice to have an abortion. Maybe not ever. Pro-choice provides a wider range of choices that includes the one option available within pro-life.
I think there is this large unfounded fear among social conservatives that when people are given choices they will exercise those choices indiscriminately. And on the whole nothing is further from the truth.
It is quite possible to be pro-choice, bi-sexual and polyamorous and still end up making choices that on the outside leave you indistinguishable from a run-of-the-mill republican presidential candidate.
Luckily they all betray that illusion with their words, or that thought might have given me nightmares for months.
Arthur
I think it started from an observation on the Poly Weekly podcast (I cannot recall the exact episode, but somewhere in the mid-100s) that even while being single you can still identify as poly... be poly.
What occurred to me is that there are many hot-button topics that revolve around the same pattern. Monogamous/non-monogamous, straight/gay vs. bi/pan-sexual where two sides are being presented as opposites... when they really aren't. At all.
It has the smell of the politics of fear about it to me.
Monogamy and polyamory aren't opposites... you can be polyamorous but be single, or having chosen for a single relationship for the time being. That doesn't stop one from being polyamorous. Polyamory provides a wider range of choices that includes all the options available within monogamy.
Similarly, bi-sexuality (pardon the narrow term) is not the opposite to singular gay/straight orientations. It is possible to be bi-sexual, but choose to be involved with only a single gender. Even if for a lifetime. That doesn't take away from the fact that at any time a different choice could have been made. Bi-sexuality (or even more so, pan-sexuality) provides a wider range of choices that includes all the options available within being straight or gay.
Similarly pro-life and pro-choice... for all the effort politicians go to make it sound that these are opposite sides, being pro-choice does not mean that you necessarily will exercise the choice to have an abortion. Maybe not ever. Pro-choice provides a wider range of choices that includes the one option available within pro-life.
I think there is this large unfounded fear among social conservatives that when people are given choices they will exercise those choices indiscriminately. And on the whole nothing is further from the truth.
It is quite possible to be pro-choice, bi-sexual and polyamorous and still end up making choices that on the outside leave you indistinguishable from a run-of-the-mill republican presidential candidate.
Luckily they all betray that illusion with their words, or that thought might have given me nightmares for months.
Arthur
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Tell us what you think. Did you like this post? Did you hate it? Want us to talk about something else next? Suggest away!