Ethical Sluts and Closet Polyamorists: Dissident Eroticism, Abject Subjects and the Normative Cycle in Self-Help Books on Free Love
In: Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging
Author:
Serena Petrella
Serena Petrella
Search for other papers by Serena Petrella in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Serena Petrella in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
In this chapter, I study self-help literature on dissident eroticism, and specifically those texts that teach how to engage in a polyamorous lifestyle. I approach these works as prescriptive texts for conduct, characteristic of a liberal mentality of government that embeds regulation into the subjectivity of individuals through processes of normalisation. I argue that the ontological bracketing for ethical polyamorous practice that these texts present are forms of “policing.” Ultimately, they are counteractive to the efforts to “open up” a cognitive space for an effective articulation of a dissident ethics of eroticism in polyamory.