I haven’t been polyam long enough to really form a strong historical opinion on this so I’m curious what Hexbears think.
Basically what I’m asking is; do folks in the polyamory community overall feel more ethical or less ethical these days, knowing there is a huge influx of people new to the community due to polyamory becoming a more culturally accepted thing in Western culture and media?
Basically I see lots of new people in the last year or two who "saw it on tv and wanted to try it. " Some of them no doubt are doing it ethically where others are clearly polybombing their partner as an excuse to cheat. So it’s been tough to form an opinion on if polyamory in the media is helping or hurting the community at large.
Curious what others think.
I think there are a lot more younger inexperienced people trying various types of polyamory. Probably leads to a lot of mistakes and bad taste in people’s mouths… I’ve found that most people under 25 don’t really know what they want. I’ve also noticed that younger generations tend to be partnered super early in school and don’t really know how to be alone. Even to the point of taking fake relationships just because that’s what everyone else is doing.
There are always gonna be shitty people, monogamy or no. Some people take advantage of polyamory as an excuse to ignore ethical responsibility. I always preface that I practice relationship anarchy that looks a lot like ethical polyamory (even though polyamory is already supposed to be ENM).
People seem to think that polyamorous people are always available. One of my partners has this problem but I personally enjoy watching them rip ignorant people a new asshole.
Dunno, i never really got in to “community”, the vibes always felt weird. I just date more than one person, it’s not an ethos or a hobby. I don’t necessarily have any connection with other people just because both of our girlfriends have three boyfriends.
I mean if you’re dating multiple people and it’s above board and they all know about it and consent to it…congrats you’re polyam by pretty much every definition I know even if you don’t use the label! I would agree that the community vibes can be weird but that’s true of every community I’ve ever been in for anything.
It’s a difference between doing a thing and forming a worldview or ideology around it. Like I don’t think of hellenic greek homosexual men as gay in the same way I think of myself. Like the thing they were doing was the same but the cultural frame is very different.
There’s a trust and safety issue, too.
If someone’s at an event because they’re Brad’s friend or Jenny’s girlfriend or Tom’s sister then they’ve got a name, a face, and a reputation. If someone’s with Tom, they’re with Tom and we’re going to Tom’s Thing with Tom’s Freinds at Tom’s Place. There’s details. “The whatever community” makes me think of events where there’s paid wrist bands, a paid bar, and no guest list, or events where no one is quite sure who is running things, or “hey let’s split hte cost of rooms with these guys I met from out of town they seem cool”.
I don’t trust lifestylists because a lot of them seem like they’re in it for the lifestyle, not the people. I’ve observed a substantial number of lifestylists will sacrifice people to protect the lifestyle. Not with polyamory, but with any lifestylist thing; hobbies, whatever. i dunno. Lots of bad experiences. Lots of stray dogs and ronin out there.
I’m not polyam, but I know a few people who got into it recently and wew the vibes have been off. Protip fellas if you’re not talking to me don’t send one of your girlfriends to talk to me instead
Ugh I hate when folks do that. I’ve been to too many events where a dude walks up because I’m apparently talking to his partner and he starts chatting me up on her behalf. Bleh. These are the kind of people who give the polyam community a bad name.
“saw it on tv and wanted to try it”
Woah have they been putting poly on tv?
They have actually there have been a few shows with polyam characters now and some weird Netflix show about non monogamy too. It’s out there in media and the interest in it is growing fast.
Hopefully a positive development, don’t trust mainstream media not to be trash but it would be good.
