Episode 18: Polyamory
Released February 23, 2021
In this episode of Overthink, Ellie and David conclude their four-part series on intimate relationships with a discussion of polyamory. Many argue that polyamory has liberatory potential as a radical form of relating to others. Some say that polyamory is natural for humans--is this story from evolutionary biology true, and does it matter? Ellie and David discuss these issues and also explain how polyamory encourages us to rethink jealousy through the concept of compersion. The two also touch on the relation between polyamory and colonialism, and gender and racial dynamics in understanding poly identities!
Interested in the works discussed? You can find them here:
Cacilda Jethá and Christopher Ryan, Sex at Dawn
Kim TallBear, The Critical Polyamorist blog
Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization
Carrie Jenkins, What Love Is and What It Could Be
Slavoj Žižek, "The Need to Traverse the Fantasy"
Justin Leonard Clardy, "‘I Don’t Want To be a Playa No More’: An Exploration of the Denigrating Effects of ‘Player’ as a Stereotype Against African American Polyamorous Men."
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1
