Polyamory on Purpose Archive

Tag: Abuse

  • Explaining Polyamory: Negative Reactions

    Mostly grammar and typo fixes here, but I also updated info on how things turned out for me when I got some of these reactions and removed some of emphasis on being polite to people who are being assholes. While I still believe that being polite to people you love who are reacting badly can…

  • The Polya Bystander: I Just Want to Be Left Alone

    Updated version of the article first appearing on Postmodern Woman. If there’s one thing that helps keep polya people from experiencing discrimination like other minorities, it’s that there’s often some sense of privacy. For many people, they can practice their non-monogamy in relative peace. They can simply spend less time with any possible family that…

  • Roots of Abuse: Intent, Insecurity, and Shitty Boundaries

    In popular imagination, abusers are fully aware of what they are doing. They are horrid people who act with full intent to control and destroy the people they claim to love. A modern monster for a modern society. The reality of abuse is much more complicated. While some abusers make a conscious decision to abuse,…

  • Is Polyamory Abusive?

    Occasionally in both mainstream discussions and polyamorous spaces, someone will claim polyamory is abusive. Before we get into the ways abuse can happen within polyamorous relationship, I want to tackle this idea that all poly relationship are inherently abusive. Abuse: Actions or behaviors intended to control or gain power over another, especially within a close…

  • What is Abuse?

    Before we can talk about abuse in polyamory, we need to talk about what abuse is. Before starting this post, I did some googling on what is abuse, and the definition of abuse. Many of the definitions didn’t really apply to abuse within relationships. For instance, the Oxford Dictionary online defines abuse as: 1 Use…

  • Abuse in Polyamory

    For a lot of people, polyamory is a pretty awesome relationship style. But there’s this thing about humans—not matter how awesome something is, we can always find a way to screw it up. Most of the time, we aren’t screwing things up on purpose. We’re just doing our best and making mistakes. Or, as one…