Recent decades have witnessed an emergence referred to as “relationship anarchy”, a concept first named by Swedish authors. It originated from the political philosophy of anarchism, a fundamentally anti-oppressive and anti-autoritarian ideology. The notion of “free love” is a more dated term used to describe relationships between anarchist community members. There appears to be a consensus in the literature for defining relationship anarchy as a form of consensual non-monogamy (CNM). CNM refers to any alternative relationship configuration departing from traditional two-person exclusive relationships. Some authors define relationship anarchy as a form of polyamory, where individuals have more than one intimate and romantic partner, but without establishing hierarchy between types of relationships or partners (e.g. primary vs secondary). Other authors prefer to completely differentiate relationship anarchy from non-hierarchical polyamory. The former’s reach is not limited to romantic or sexual relationships, but instead includes all types of relationships (e.g. friendship) while also having an important anti-hegemonic, socially critical aspect. This view rejects not only the principle of relationship hierarchy, as in attributing superior social status to romantic relationships, but all hierarchies within society. Some literature also examines how queer theory (a branch of critical theory) and political anarchism can intersect and result in relationship anarchy with the power to subvert sexual norms. This perspective also examines connections between the normative systems of cisheteronormativity and mononormativity (monogamy as a norm).
Review · Relationship anarchy
27 March 2024
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relationship anarchy, sexual anarchy, alternative relationship, consensual non-monogamy, ethical non-monogamy, free love, anarchism, polyamory
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