![]() ![]() However, in Kivits' experience, it's almost exclusively clients under 40 who want to discuss the idea, she says, adding that social media – and TikTok especially – has given young people a platform to talk about their experiences with ethical non-monogamy and how it works for them. "Some of these clients have been couples who have wanted to consider how they can open their marriages or long-term relationships up and others have been singles who have wanted to explore how polyamory could fit into their lives and understand more about why they are drawn to the idea." "I've definitely seen more people who are open to or wanting to explore polyamory over the last couple of years," says sex and relationship therapist Rhian Kivits. According to Pew Research, 51% of adults under 30 in the US think that open marriage is acceptable – while YouGov data shows a third of Americans describe their ideal relationship as something other than complete monogamy. Yet statistics do back up the idea that it's becoming more common. "The very class of Americans who most reap the benefits of marriage are the same class who get to declare monogamy passé and boring," writes Tyler Austin Harper in The Atlantic. The author of More resides in Brooklyn's affluent Park Slope neighbourhood and, coupled, with the New York Magazine article, there's scepticism over polyamory being packaged up as the latest lifestyle choice for well-off urbanites. However this idea that polyamory is "in vogue", is causing some pushback. Upcoming Luca Guadagnino film Challengers, starring Zendaya, has been described as a "polyamorous tennis romp" – though it's not clear whether the threesome hinted at in the trailer extends to a full-on relationship. In last year's Passages, one half of a gay married couple begins a heterosexual relationship with a woman. On screen, TV and movies are starting to explore less conventional relationship models. ![]() More recently though, leading sex therapists like Esther Perel have brought polyamory into the public discussion. The Ethical Slut, published in 1997, is known as the original bible of ethical non-monogamy - though for decades it still felt like the subject was on the fringes. The term polyamory, where both partners can have multiple intimate relationships at the same time (not to be confused with polygamy, where one person has multiple partners) originated in the early 1990s, though multi-partner relationships have dated back decades, or even centuries. ![]() Polyamory, open relationships, free love, non-exclusive arrangements… however you choose to describe it, ethical non-monogamy is certainly nothing new. Since publication, it's garnered huge coverage and spurned countless think pieces ( How Did Polyamory Become So Popular? asked The New Yorker). The author, a 51-year-old former teacher, details the open marriage she and her husband embarked on in 2008. It coincided with the release of a new book, More: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter. It featured an in-depth guide on how to open up relationships and a report on a polycule (a network of people in non-monogamous relationships). In January, New York Magazine ran a cover story on polyamory, arguing that it is, if not mainstream, then increasingly common. In the last few weeks, ethical non-monogamy has taken over the cultural conversation. Polyamory specifically refers to having multiple romantic relationships at the same time. Ethical non-monogamy is an umbrella term for various different consensual non-exclusive relationships, including open marriages, where couples are romantically monogamous but not sexually. Even so, it's the latest example of polyamory – or more broadly ethical non-monogamy – hitting the mainstream. In exploring polyamory, Couple to Throuple might be breaking some new ground for a dating show (though a handful of others, including Channel 4's Open House: The Great Sex Experiment - which premiered in the UK in 2022 – have already explored what that show described as "one of society's greatest taboos"), but a sensitive and nuanced exploration of non-monogamous relationships this is not. ![]()
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