Polyamory, Monogamy, and American Dreams: The Stories We Tell about Poly Lives and the Cultural Production of Inequality

by Mimi Schippers

This book introduces "the poly gaze" as a cultural tool to examine how representations of polyamory and poly lives reflect or challenge cultural hegemonies of race, class, gender, and nation.

What role does monogamy play in American Identity, the American dream, and U.S. exceptionalism? How do the stories we tell about intimate relationships do cultural and ideological work to maintain and legitimize social inequalities along the lines of race, ethnicity, nation, religion, class, gender and sexuality? How might the introduction of polyamory or consensually non-monogamous relationships in the stories we tell about intimacy confound, disrupt or shift the meaning of what constitutes a good, American life? These are the questions that Mimi Schippers focuses on in this original and engaging study. As she develops the poly gaze, Schippers argues for a sociologically informed and cultivated lens with which anyone, regardless of their experiences with polyamory or consensual non-monogamy, can read culture, media images, and texts against hegemony.

This will be a key text for researchers and students in Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Studies, Media Studies, American Studies and Sociology. This book is accessible and indispensable reading for undergraduate student and postgraduates wanting to gain greater understanding of debates around the key concept of heteronormativity.

144 pages, ebook

Published October 28, 2019

Reviews

[Ori Tsameret]

Mandatory text on a painfully undertheorized issue for any queer feminist worth their salt

[Ruth Crean · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent addition to current writing on Polyamory, but from a unique perspective of examining film through the Polygaze. If you're interested in Queer theory, cinema, and examining Polyamory through a more philosophical and sociology lens than a practical one then this book is for you. I particularly appreciated the writer speaking about topics like community care, blended poly families, and migrants/nationality.

This is not a manual for poly, nor does it pander to a reader who isn't deeply versed in both Polyamory and Queer theory. It was refreshing to read something that addressed systemic topics that effect how Polyamory is depicted and perceived in media

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

i find the subject fascinating. and the writing is somehow readable. but boy, the weasel is oozing from every paragraph. the author does not have a spine, or an opinion, it is always somebody else. sometimes they righteously exclaim: i couldn't agree more. so what don't you just state that instead of wasting half a page giving the burden of responsibility to a third party? predictably, schippers assumes cherry picking is the highest form of intellectual achievement so they over do it.

overall the volume is very low on information, most of the text is the author hedging.

[Joshua Witham · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best works I’ve read in a long time… This book perfectly articulates so many things I’ve struggled to find the language and framework for, while also challenging me in some of my previously held understandings of mononormativity and the ways it’s perpetuated. I found the chapter on “hook-up culture” especially insightful.