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- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!rpi!usenet.coe.montana.edu!news.uoregon.edu!aaa.uoregon.edu!user
- From: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jason)
- Newsgroups: alt.callahans
- Subject: Re: Definition of "monogamy"?
- Followup-To: alt.callahans
- Date: 23 Dec 1992 20:55:11 GMT
- Organization: the Polyhedron Group
- Lines: 40
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <JBrandt-231292124043@aaa.uoregon.edu>
- References: <1992Dec23.165649.5640@netcom.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: aaa.uoregon.edu
-
- In article <1992Dec23.165649.5640@netcom.com>, aahz@netcom.com (Mean Green
- Dancing Machine) wrote:
- >
- > We're having a nice little discussion (read "flamewar" ;-) in
- > alt.polyamory about the nature of monogamy. I'd like to hear some
- > thoughts from people in this newsgroup about what it means to them.
-
- Jason ponders that question. "Well Pegasus (My wife in RL) and I have had
- an -exclusively- monogamous relationship the entire nine years plus we've
- been married, and for most of the four years we dated before that."
-
- "I'm of a nature to lean towards polyandry myself, but I have chosen a
- monogamous life for a number of reasons."
-
- "1. Safer with respect to avoiding venerial diseases. Even before AIDS, I
- was hyper-cautious about my partners, because the main medications for
- 'curing' VD, (Pennicylin and it's derivitives) are thing's I'm deathly
- alergic to. If I ever did contract a VD, I'd be in a world of hurt trying
- to get rid of it."
-
- "2. My partner, Pegasus, prefers a monogamous lifestyle. She has no
- interest to speak of in 'dating' anyone other than me. So it isn't really
- 'fair' to have exclusive access to her favors, while not granting her the
- same consideration. When we first started dating, we had an 'agreement'
- that we could see other people. It was very one sided and unfair to her.
- The folks we knew that she might want to date didn't want to vex me, and
- treated her like we were already married. I never ran into that problem,
- although the very few times I tried, nothing lasted since they knew thay
- were always stuck being 'number two'. I gave it up as a bad deal early on,
- 'cause it wasn't worth hurting my primary partner's feelings over."
-
- "3. I made a promise to my partner, nine years back when we were married,
- that she had final say over my 'favors'. If she -chose- to 'share me', she
- could, at her discretion. If she wanted me to 'share her, I had that same
- option. Both cases only IF the other also agreed to the arrangement. We've
- considered it once or twice, but never taken that option. No real need to,
- as we can each meet any 'real' needs the other has. Save for the somewhat
- illusiory benefit of 'variety', and a good imagination can solve that."
-
- Jason
-