"Make love; end monogamy war"

The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

A columnist for a major Australian paper muses about polyamory on the occasion of Global Orgasm Day.

By Judith Ireland

December 22, 2006

"Polyamory" sounds like a term for parrots in the mood, but has been coined to describe people who are involved with multiple, simultaneous partners — with the consent of their significant other/s....

It's supposedly the way of the future. And why not, in an age when you can have it all? There's lots not to like about monogamy thanks to its associations with other unfortunate M words such as "marriage", "mortgage" and "misspent youth".

Humans have been questioning the whole one-mate-only thing since we split with the monkeys. In an attempt to find freedom from the shackles of staying together for the sake of the lease on the Land Rover, we've also tried polygamy, polyandry, free love, swinging and no-fault divorce.

Yet while many of these practices have found niche markets in communes, Utah and Aaron Spelling programs, none — besides the divorce option — has caught on in the mainstream. Anticlimactic as it is to admit, monogamy is the capitalism of the social world. It isn't perfect and it's mighty expensive, but no one's actually come up with a viable alternative for the masses.

Read the whole article.