Misuse of "polyamorous." We still have work to do.

The tabloid New York Daily News has an article this morning about a swing club operator who writes in her memoir that she's had sex with 3,000 men. (I mistakenly said it was in the New York Post originally.) The article begins,

Steamy memoir by 63-year-old Marie Calvert of La Chambre swinging club in Sheffield, England, reveals the source of prominent polyamorous couple’s first interest in alternate sex partners: a magazine her husband brought home when she was 28.

And the lead sentence calls her "one half of one of the UK’s most prominent polyamorous couples".

But the lady herself says, "neither of us puts sex on a pedestal. We see it for what it is: separate from love." Her 3,000 partners are described as casual romps.

Polyfuckery and polyamory are not the same. This too-common misuse of our identifying word threatens to dilute and confuse our identity. If it takes hold it will make life harder for us, make it harder for the curious to google good information, and make it harder for us to find each other.

I posted an early comment calling out the writer and the paper for stupidity. So can you. The article: Swinger magazine inspired woman to sleep with 3,000 men: report (Feb. 15, 2015).

The article is cribbed from a more intelligent one by the lady herself in The Guardian, which makes no reference to polyamory.

Update later in the day: Success! Eve Rickert took the direct approach — she wrote to the reporter. And he promised to fix the wording:

And yes, the article is now fixed. Activism gets results.

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