Polyamory and Feminism

Ever hear that polygamy is patriarchal, often because someone thinks all polygamy is religion-based polygyny? Well you can listen to a podcast asking if feminism is incompatible with monogamy.

Some question whether monogamy is a patriarchal invention that mainly benefits men and functions as a mechanism of control. In response, some people practice non-monogamy as an alternative. But is non-monogamy necessarily 'more' feminist? Is monogamy necessarily contradictory to feminist ideals?

I'm a male, and have always been a male, and my humble opinion is that it is feminist to raise girls to be women empowered to be independent and truly free to make their own choices about their relationships. A woman, like a man, should be free to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with any consenting adults, without prosecution, bullying, stigmas, shaming, double-standards, or discrimination. Some people need monogamy. Others are polyamorous. Some can be happy either in monogamous or polyamorous relationships. Others feel more fulfilled in some form of ethical nonmonogamy that might not be described as polyamory. Nobody should be telling a grown woman that she can't have the kind of relationship she desires and mutually enters with other adults.

In this episode, your host, Meghan Murphy speaks with Meg Barker, senior lecturer in psychology at the Open University, a sex and relationship therapist, and the author of Rewriting the Rules: An Integrative Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships about some of the reasons people might enter into non-monogamous relationships as well as some of the challenges they might face. Later on the show we hear from Katie, an undergraduate student in her late twenties, who shares her experiences navigating a non-monogamous relationship as a feminist.

If you listen, let me know what you think.