Poly wins media notice in Portugal

Daniel Cardoso, a journalism teacher and polyactivist in Portugal, sends several poly-in-the-media items from a country that, like neighboring Spain, has successfully outgrown Fascist rule.

● An informative, 5½-page article titled "Love Cubed" appeared a couple weeks ago in Notícias Magazine, "a supplement magazine of one of the main Portuguese daily newspapers," Cardoso writes. It features him and his partners. From the table of contents (translated):

What is polyamory?

There are different ways of doing love relationships. Some people don't fit the traditional model and seek out new ways. Polyamory is one of them. To live in this manner requires a "great maturity", according to adherents of this model, who explain their way of life on page 32....

The article begins as follows:

Ines began what would become her first love relationship at age 21. Daniel Cardoso, [then] 24, was already dating when he met her. They became friends — and it was Daniel, a researcher and teacher of media and journalism, who introduced the concept of loving and dating however many people one wanted, in an honest and responsible manner. In other words, everyone involved would know "what was up with who."

"My first reaction was to think that was an intellectually interesting idea: to love many people, regardless of gender, allowing these people to have the same freedom to love whomever they wanted and be happy," says Ines. "At the time I said, 'It's an interesting new twist but not for me. I'm selfish and want someone just for myself.'"

Over months of conversations, however, the preconceived notion that polyamory was not a good fit for her gave way to curiosity. "I knew people in polyamorous relationships and saw how it worked, until one day the idea took hold as a genuinely possible alternative — one that suited my values of freedom and respect and would not force me to follow the herd, something I have never identified with doing."...

Read the complete article (Jan. 16, 2011). The link brings up the magazine pages; click to enlarge, then click on the right- or left-margin arrows to flip the pages. (The brief "history of polyamory" mentions Stranger in a Strange Land.)


● A national TV news channel in Portugal aired this report on polyamory (2:44), highlighting the same triad and explaining the basic concepts. The segment appeared on TVI's "Jornal Nacional" for October 25, 2010.


● In the GLBT magazine Com'Out:

Polyamory: A horizon of possibilities

...and a relationship model in which one can love more than one person at a time. We hardly see in monogamy an ideal of happiness. Being polyamorous does not require that relationships are maintained simultaneously, just that the option is left open.

Read the whole original (July-Sept. 2010). Again, you get magazine pages to flip. You don't need a translator for " 'Comunicar, comunicar, comunicar' seja um dos slogans do poliamor."


● The Portuguese edition of the newsweekly magazine Focus (based in Germany) ran a long story on the supposedly polyamorous future of Western society, translated from the article in the German edition last May. That was the one with the Rubens-esque nude puppy pile on the cover. The Portuguese edition includes a small amount of local material swapped in.

How we shall love — and if we love, with how many?

Several partners at the same time. Sexual potency into old age. The end of romanticism. Researchers describe how emotions, sex and our relationships will change in the future.

David, Ana, and Maria (not their real names) love in three dimensions. They love polyamorously — in which you have multiple partners, for head, heart and body. In 2030, Ana will be 45, Maria 52 and David 56. And maybe they will smile a bit about the fact that they had already anticipated the future in 2010....

Can we imagine a future of multi-dimensional love? And so, also, a future of other emotions in 3-D, as it were? For philosopher and writer Sven Hillenkamp, the lifestyle of David, Ana and Maria is a realistic possibility in the world of 2030. "Networks of people living polyamorously are renewing the idea of open relationship," he says. "These people believe that they can do both long-term: be in a partnership and have unlimited possibilities."

Read the whole article (June 15, 2010).


For more em Português, see the PolyPortugal website: polyportugal.blogspot.com.

And here are all my posts with the Português tag (including this one; scroll down).

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