Polyamorous Relationships: Intimate Partners

Polyamorous Relationships Name Institutions Polyamorous Relationships Polyamory refers to the situation whereby an individual has more than one intimate partner and where all the partners involved in this relationship are well aware of this. Recent years have seen the practice being given much attention by researches due to the increase in the prevalence of the same all over the world. Usually an individual or couple may make the choice of involving themselves into polyamory or not. Just like the other relationships, this practice also seeks to promote values such as love, honesty, integrity, intimacy, commitment; equality and communication although some studies have shown that the level of commitment is generally low. Despite the acknowledgement of the existence of polyamory, the society is yet to accept these kinds of relationships fully and often times, those involved have to maintain secrecy for fear of prejudices and stigmatization. The stigma is associated with the fact that society usually perceives polys as being immoral, unclean and bad example to other members of the community. In some western cultures, poly relationships are even regarded as being illegal and may attract the attention of the law in some instances. This continues stigmatization places the poly community at a disadvantage in accessing better services like health care since in most cases they are misunderstood or discriminated against. Notably, issues of race, gender and sexual orientation also play a vital role in determining polyamorous relationships. Polyamory is a form of a consensual non-monogamy (CNM) relationship where there is an open agreement between partners to have emotional and sexual relationships with other partners. Even though polyamorous relationships are increasingly becoming common, the subject is yet to receive full attention from researches and scholars. For this reason, polys are exposed to a lot of stigmatization and are often misunderstood (Young 2014). This above situation is supported by the fact that many western cultures only acknowledge monogamous relationships and view polyamorous ones as immoral and therefore illegal (Barnett 2014). A study by Mitchell, Bartholomew, and Cobb (2013) sought to know why these relationships continue being practiced despite society’s disapproval of the same by investigating how the need for fulfillment contributed to such relationships. In Western cultures, sexual exclusivity is highly expected amongst those in relationships and any sex that is extramarital is frowned upon and can result into separation or end of the relationship. This kind of view explains why there is general prejudice against polyamorous relationships with those reported to have been victims of this making up 43% of the poly community (Mitchell et al., 2013). In their study, DePaulo and Morris (2005) argue that that this prejudice is unmerited because of the advantages associated with polyamory. For instance, polyamory eliminates the need to over-rely on one romantic partner for fulfillment of all needs. This can cause a strain on the relationship while the same can be avoided by having multiple partners share some of the responsibilities. According to the two studies, the emotional freedom and support in polyamorous relationships is more compared to romantic relationships hence the need to pay attention to them. However, it also acknowledged that the level of commitment in polyamory is very low while jealousy is high. Still on stigmatization, this is noted to be brought about by a society having negative attitudes towards the individuals in polyamorous relationships. Interestingly, this stigma does not come from the members of the community but rather from in the larger community such as the individual’s family, employees, friends, church members and therapists among others. According to Sheff (2014), the situation is made even worse by the presence of children that are under the care of their parents and their partners as well. Since society generally associates poly relationships with cheating and promiscuity, this may result to the family members taking away the children for the purposes of keeping them away from the negative influence from their parents. This may cause unnecessary strain in the poly relationship and between the partners and their families. Societal negative attitudes towards polyamorous relationships are also reflected in the works by most researchers. Notably, a good number of researches tend to associate polyamory with infidelity especially since emotions are involved in these relationships. The reasoning is that these relationships upset the other partners in the relationship hence explaining why they are frowned upon. Despite this negative view and stigma associated with polyamorous relationships, it is also important to acknowledge its positive side. Concerning the assumption that poly relationships promote cheating, it is noted that this is far from the truth since it in fact helps to control and avoid cheating. Evidently, communication between and amongst polyamorous partners is much open and honest and usually depends on the consent of all those involved, thus there is little room for cheating. Jealousy and insecurity are common in any relationship and polyamory is not an exception in this. However, this is not a big deal since polyamory believes in the “concept of compersion” in which the idea of one’s partner having sexual relations with another new partner is something worth celebrating and not meant to cause jealousy (Seguin 2017). Apart from the mentioned, polyamorous relationships cause increases in resources including finances since several partners contribute them. In this case, the financial burden that could be left to only one partner in a romantic relationship is alleviated. The advantages of these relationships are not only to the parents but to the children as well. The adult supervision and support is more in such relationships. Generally, polyamorous relationships have both their positive and negative sides. This area requires more research to determine whether to promote the practice or not. Polyamorous relationships are diverse in terms of race and class. In this diversity, there are notable similarities amongst the members of the polyamorous community. According to Sheff (2013) whites who belong to the middle or upper middle class in society form the greatest percentage of those in poly relationships. These whites are usually between the ages of 30 to 60 with high educational qualifications. The study further notes that a majority of these people are rich and usually non-religious although the few religious ones practice paganism, universalism and other uncommon religions. When it comes to people of color, the number of polys is less compared to the whites (Sheff 2013). The same case is true for Christians and for low class people. Evidently, racism has a lot to do with this this kind of scenario. In the United States for example, th...