The Color of Nonmonogamy: Polyamory and Whiteness

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Abstract

Traditionally, non- monogamy is constructed in the US as non-white. However, polyamory is currently constructed as a “white” practice. I engage with this contradiction, tracing how polyamory is simultaneously but differentially constructed as both white and non- white. Based on archival research and contemporary popular media, I suggest that the conceptualization of polyamory as white raises the possibility that 20th century forms of consensual non monogamy were created in an act of racialized boundary making with other, abjected forms of non- monogamy.

Author

• Lital Pascar, Northwestern University