This paper examines leading Canadian decisions in the areas of obscenity and indecency law and freedom of religion to demonstrate that the strangeness of a practice will be a major factor in determining the harm associated with it. Since “strangeness” in sexual deviance cases turn on the perceived objectification and subjugation of women and minority religion cases turn on communal behaviours, these strands intersect in the debate over polygamy. The impact that these skewed perceptions will have on findings of harm in the polygamy context is examined, as are how the benefits of the legislation may be overstated. Finally, the effects of “othering” are addressed for the practice of polyamory, a relationship structure that lacks harm but may nevertheless be equally prohibited.

This paper examines leading Canadian decisions in the areas of obscenity and indecency law and freedom of religion to demonstrate that the strangeness of a practice will be a major factor in determining the harm associated with it. Since “strangeness” in sexual deviance cases turn on the perceived objectification and subjugation of women and minority religion cases turn on communal behaviours, these strands intersect in the debate over polygamy. The impact that these skewed perceptions will have on findings of harm in the polygamy context is examined, as are how the benefits of the legislation may be overstated. Finally, the effects of “othering” are addressed for the practice of polyamory, a relationship structure that lacks harm but may nevertheless be equally prohibited.

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experience of polyamory from the perspective of heterosexual polyamorous women through a mononormative framework. Interpretive phenomenology was used because it gives participants the opportunity to express this phenomenon on their own terms. This study focused on understanding the experience of heterosexual polyamorous women in the following areas: (1) understanding the decision to participate in polyamorous relationships, (2) exploring the boundaries heterosexual women use to regulate and maintain multiple relationships, and (3) giving these women the opportunity to refute assumptions and stereotypes associated with identifying themselves as polyamorous. Eight women whom identified as heterosexual and polyamorous participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Data form these interviews were analyzed using an interpretive phenomenological approach. Open coding and in-vivo coding were used to organize similar experiences into concepts that were then organized into themes and subthemes that emerged from the data. From this study, researchers gained insight into how polyamorous heterosexual woman make meaning of this phenomenon and offer recommendations for clinical professionals to use when working with this population. / Master of Science / Polyamory has been practiced for centuries in many different cultures (Labriola, 1999; Klesse, 2006; Robinson, 2013). Previous research on polyamorous relationships has focused primarily on homosexual males. There has been limited research on polyamorous relationships from the woman's perspective and no research focused exclusively on heterosexual women who identify as polyamorous. This study explored the lived experience of heterosexual polyamorous women in polyamorous relationships using interpretive phenomenology. This included understanding the decision to participate in polyamorous relationships, exploring the boundaries heterosexual women use to regulate and maintain multiple relationships, and giving these women the opportunity to refute assumptions and stereotypes associated with identifying themselves as polyamorous. The results of this research study provide insight into this perspective on polyamory and offer recommendations for clinical professionals to use when working with this population.

This thesis asks the question as to whether polyamory functions as a community glue or solvent for the Central Florida Burner Community. It explores the definition of polyamory and how it relates to the Burner counter-culture. This thesis explores what polyamory's effects are on the individual and community levels for those who participate in it. The findings concluded that overall the participants reported a perceived positive impact on both the individual level and on community cohesion in this case. The participants also revealed that the environment Burning Man provides is generally open and welcoming of polyamory.

Polyamory is an identity that describes the ability to experience romantic love with more than one romantic partner at a time. Polyamory is often perceived as being perverse, amoral, and relationally broken or deficient; however, people who identify as polyamorous are found to be as mentally healthy and happy as people who are monogamous. Clients who identify as polyamorous may experience their counselor as lacking familiarity with and knowledge of polyamory or as actively working against their identity. This study was a phenomenological inquiry designed to illuminate the counseling experiences of polyamorous people. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with eight participants and analyzed with a modified van Kaam method with relational-cultural theory as the framework. The three major findings that constitute the essence of this inquiry were: (a) participants experienced disappointment and disrespect in the counselor's ignorance of their vital identities, (b) the necessities of trust and connection between participant and counselor for empowerment and growth, and (c) the complementary nature of relationality in polyamory and counseling. These findings indicated counselors should seek a baseline of education on polyamory. The implications for counselor educators were to strive to envelope counselors-in-training in a culture that supports developing multicultural competency and to create continuing education on marginalized populations to best support in-practice counselors. These efforts increase the likelihood that polyamorists are able to receive effective counseling that supports them holistically.

Alison, the protagonist, is a 21-year-old cello student from Northwest Ohio who studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Although she comes from a conservative Methodist upbringing, Alison has turned away from her beliefs and entered into a polyamorous relationship with Luke, a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati, and his wife Cheryl. Through this relationship, Alison has been able to explore her nascent bisexuality and enjoy the affection she has been denied by her reticent mother and absent father. While the members of the triad hold lofty principles about openness and trust, the practice of that relationship—and its ever-shifting unwritten rules—fail to live up to their ideals.

This paper explores how people of color, particularly black people in the Atlanta area, navigate inside and outside of their sexual communities – particularly, BDSM, polyamory and swinging communities. I investigated how participants’ (N=11) identity construction and sexual actions/behaviors contributed to the benefits and/or consequences that fostered the navigation of non-sexual and sexual communities using queer theory and intersectionality theory with a womanist approach. Particularly, I found that my participants migrated towards communities based on privilege, comfort, and acts of resistance. In addition, I found that while they all identified as “perverts of color,” they did not identify as “promiscuous.” Overall, this study highlights the potential for people to resist certain oppressions, all while maintaining a sex-positive politic inside and outside of their alternative sexual communities. It also emphasizes the need to broaden our scopes on sexual liberation movements that marginalize those with various intersections of identities.

This work explores identity positions of speakers in modern and contemporary poetry with respect to themes of subjectivity, self-awareness, lyricism, heteroglossia, and social contextualization, from perspectives including Bakhtinian, queer, feminist and postructuralist theories, and Peircian semiotics. Tony Hoagland, W.H. Auden, Adrienne Rich, and the poetic prose of Hélène Cixous provide textual examples of an evolving aesthetic in which the poet's self and world comprise multiple dynamic, open relationships supplanting one in which simple correspondences between signifiers and signifieds define selves isolated from the world. Hypertext and polyamory serve as useful analogies to the semantic eros characteristic of such poetry, including the collection of original poems that the critical portion of this thesis introduces.

Previous research suggests one in five United States (U.S.) adults will engage in consensual nonmonogamy (CNM) in their lifetime (Haupert et al., 2017). Despite a significant number of adults engaging in CNM relationships, there is considerable stigma regarding CNM status. Clients that identify as CNM are marginalized in the process of psychotherapy (Henrich & Trawinski, 2016; Kisler & Lock, 2019; Schechinger et al., 2018). One previous study found that one-third of clients who identify as consensually nonmonogamous reported experiencing inappropriate therapy practices (Schechinger et al., 2018). Inappropriate therapy practices included their therapist pathologizing their relationship structure or expressing judgmental attitudes around their CNM relationship. Clients who experienced inappropriate practices were significantly more likely to terminate therapy prematurely. The present study measures relational therapists’ (n = 775) attitudes, monogamism sensitivity, and knowledge regarding consensual nonmonogamy. Treatment practices when working with clients who identify as CNM were also explored through open-ended questions. A simple linear regression revealed that knowledge of CNM predicted favorable attitudes toward CNM. Furthermore, monogamism sensitivity strengthened the relationship between knowledge and attitudes. Specialized training was not significant in predicting knowledge of CNM or attitudes toward CNM. Thematic analysis revealed four categories related to working with CNM clients in therapy. These categories were general treatment, helpful practices, unhelpful practices, and perpetuating stigma. Results of both the qualitative and quantitative data analyses suggest relational therapy training programs should better prepare clinicians in working with clients who identify as consensually nonmonogamous. Specifically, in addressing how monogamism influences therapists ’clinical judgement.

In this bachelor project I’m working with a topic close to my heart, in my heart and a matter of the heart. Its about how humans does intimate relationships. Specifically how people in Sweden have relationships that do not follow the monoamorous norm of Swedish society.   This report goes through how one can work with a highly personal topic with the goal to reach out, to awaken awareness and inspire courage in others. How a designer in a student position can have a process that goes back and forth between ”Participating and Listening”, “Talking and Facilitating” and “Thinking and Making”: and how those roles leak into each other, and nurture the over all process.  How did I give visibility to relationship diversity focusing on polyamory and worked withits community? I had a process of searching and experimenting with mediums. Words on twitter and in poems. Gathering people for workshops and conversations. Participating in a polyamourous conference, sending out “Chainletters” among its participants.  Gathering inspiration and information until a materialization was needed. Finding that textile crafts feels as close to home as the topic does. Hands and sewing machines turn intangible into tangible; “My Poly Power Blanket”. The quilted materialization and representation of polyamory goes into our graduation exhibition. Where the blanket gets accompanied by the workshops “Relationship Picnic” and “Make you own Power Patch”. This report gives an overview of the complex process that happened when I worked from my heart, with a subject about hearts; polyamory.