Relationship anarchy
Relationship anarchy (sometimes abbreviated RA) is the belief that relationships should not be bound by rules aside from what the people involved mutually agree upon. If a relationship anarchist has multiple intimate partners, it might be considered as a form of polyamory, but distinguishes itself by postulating that there need not be a formal distinction between sexual, romantic, or platonic relationships.
Relationship anarchists look at each relationship (romantic or otherwise) individually, as opposed to categorizing them according to societal norms such as 'just friends', 'in a relationship', or 'in an open relationship'.
The term relationship anarchy was coined by Andie Nordgren,[1] and is the topic of Swedish bachelor theses by Jacob Strandell[2] and Ida Midnattssol.[3] It was discussed in workshops at OpenCon 2010,[4] and by Senior Open University lecturer Dr Meg-John Barker in a presentation in 2013.[5]
The relationship anarchy movement has its roots in the free love movement of the 20th century,[6] which in some forms rejected the idea of monogamous marriage, seeing it as a form of social and financial bondage.
References
- ↑ Anapol, Deborah (2010). Polyamory in the 21st Century: Love and Intimacy with Multiple Partners. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- ↑ "Det fria subjektets diskurs: en analys av de diskurser som möjliggör relationsanarkins diskurs och praktik.". 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
- ↑ "Ett relationsanarkistiskt ställningstagande - en undersökning av subjektspositionering inom relationsanarki.". 19 March 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
- ↑ "So what’s OpenCon all about, then?". 5 October 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
- ↑ Barker, Meg (23 January 2013). "Rewriting the Rules: Non/monogamies". Retrieved 5 July 2013.
- ↑ Asexual, The Thinking. "Relationship Anarchy Basics". The Thinking Aro. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
Further reading
- Nordgren, Andie. "The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy", Andie's Log, July 6, 2012.
- Denkinson, Grant. "UK Poly Mailing List Demographic Survey Results", Polytical.org, September 5, 2012.