Polyamory, Monogamy, and American Dreams is a much needed book which radically rethinks the ways in which relationships are understood, represented, and lived in US culture. Taking a poly gaze to everything from mainstream movies to hook-up research, the author points out the skewed perspectives that take a monogamous white, western, norm as their starting point. In times of austerity and neofacism this book offers much-needed alternative perspectives on how we might transform our ways of living and relating if we deploy a poly gaze.
Dr. Meg-John Barker, author of Rewriting the Rules, Understanding Non-Monogamies, and Life Isnt Binary
In Polyamory, Monogamy, and American Dreams, Mimi Schippers trains a polyqueer gaze on cultural narratives from Camelot to Grace and Frankie, unearthing the possibility for connections of care, mutuality, belonging, and intimacy beyond ties of marriage or blood. She teaches us how to identify mononormativity embedded in the stories we telland to see the way that it perpetuates inequalities. This courageous, creative, compassionate book provides new ways to think about the culture we consume and the lives we create.
Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Professor of Sociology and Organizational Studies, University of Michigan
Polyamory, Monogamy, and American Dreams offers an urgent interruption of our understanding of sex and love in modern times. From critiquing the sexual styles of American exceptionalism to imploding notions of the good life, through this books poly gaze youll never see the world the same again.
Hannah McCann, Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne
Arguably the most revolutionary idea to hit gender and sexuality studies in a decade, the poly gaze is more than a lens on polyamory. Its a prism that reveals how mononormativity inflects all axes of oppression and an essential tool for social justice. Schippers paves an inspiring path toward a more poly politics, one that binds us together instead of holds us apart.
Lisa Wade, Associate Professor of Sociology, Occidental College and author of American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus
POLYAMORY, MONOGAMY, AND AMERICAN DREAMS
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 students and postgraduates wanting to gain greater understanding of debates around the key concept of heteronormativity.
Mimi Schippers received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is Professor of Sociology and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Tulane University. Her research focuses on masculinities, femininities, and the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality in everyday interactions, relationships, and subcultures. She is author of Beyond Monogamy: Polyamory and the Future of Polyqueer Sexualities and Rockin Out of the Box: Gender Maneuvering in Alternative Hard Rock.
FEMINISM AND FEMALE SEXUALITY
Postfeminism in Context
Women, Australian Popular Culture, and the Unsettling of Postfeminism
Margaret Henderson and Anthea Taylor
Polyamory, Monogamy, and American Dreams
The Stories We Tell about Poly Lives and the Cultural Production of Inequality
Mimi Schippers
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 Mimi Schippers
The right of Mimi Schippers to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schippers, Mimi, 1964- author.
Title: Polyamory, monogamy, and American dreams : the stories we tell about poly lives and the cultural production of inequality / Mimi Schippers.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019028301 (print) | LCCN 2019028302 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138895034 (paperback) | ISBN 9781138895010 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315179698 (ebook) | ISBN 9781351717120 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781351717113 (epub) | ISBN 9781351717106 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Non-monogamous relationshipsUnited States. | Interpersonal relationsUnited States. | EqualityUnited States.
Classification: LCC HQ980.5 .S35 2020 (print) | LCC HQ980.5 (ebook) | DDC 306.84/23dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028301
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028302
ISBN: 978-1-138-89501-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-89503-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-17969-8 (ebk)
One of my favorite films is the 1967 musical drama Camelot (Logan 1967). When I first saw it at the age of 14, I was enthralled with the costumes, the music, and the mythical story of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot. Though the film was quite dated by the time I encountered it on a VHS tape my mother acquired, I still lost myself in the love story between Arthur, the reluctant King of England, Guinevere the seductive Queen, and the handsome French knight, Lancelot. It is, above all else, a romantic narrative about love and betrayal, and one might conclude that my love of this film was nothing more than just another example of an adolescent girls fascination with tales of heterosexual romance. Although I am certain romance was part of it, in retrospect, I believe there was something more that drew me in.
