Premium Cable stalwart Showtime is moving into new territory this month with the premiere of a new reality TV series that will take a serious look at the practice of polyamory. It marks the first time that the practice of consensual non-monogamy will get this kind of treatment from a major media outlet.
From the Showtime news release:
| The new SHOWTIME docu-series, POLYAMORY: MARRIED AND DATING, exploring alternative relationship structures, premieres on Thursday, July 12th at 11 PM ET/PT. Polyamory or ?poly? as it is often referred to, is practiced by couples who believe that they can also have deep, committed, long-term and loving relationships with people other than their spouses. Unlike polygamy, polyamory is not based on any religious tenets nor does it involve multiple spouses. Produced by BermanBraun, this series of seven episodes presents the various ways in which poly practitioners approach non-monogamy. |
That?s not to ignore the impact of the docu-series Sister Wives or the HBO series Big Love, but those shows were not really about polyamory as much as they were about polygamy. As the news release correctly states, there is a distinct difference between those experiences, but the media has been quite blase about it, typically aiming at the sensational instead of the educational.
That?s not to say that this series will be any different. We?re going to withhold judgment until we see it, but the storylines they describe in the release could really go in either direction:
| POLYAMORY: MARRIED AND DATING features Lindsey and Anthony, Los Angeles-based grad students who have been married for four years. In the premiere episode, the duo is reconnecting with their primary girlfriend of the past two years, Vanessa, who desperately wants a formalized commitment from her polyamorous triad. Further down the coast in San Diego, Kamala Devi and Michael have been married for 10 years and are the proud parents of a four-year-old son. The couple currently identifies 12 other lovers ? some they share and some they don?t. Devoted to expanding their family, they are inviting two of their lovers, married couple Jen and Tahl, to move in with them. |
The first synopsis refers to a relatively common poly format, the closed triad. This is when a couple engages a single bisexual female in a relationship with both partners. In the poly lifestyle, the act of looking for such a partner is called ?unicorn hunting,? because single bisexual women who are interested in such relationship are so rare, they are practically thought to be mythical in nature. Okay. No, not really. But they are rare.
The second synopsis that describes a couple with 12 lovers stretches reality for us, if, for any other reason, there are only 24 hours in a day. How much of a meaningful relationship can all these people truly have? Do they work? Do they eat? Do they bathe? Because if they actually took the time to properly tend to each of those relationships, we?re reasonably certain they wouldn?t have any time left to do anything else.
Also, we can see some poly folks being upset about the depiction of the second couple, because the first thing many poly couples will proclaim is that poly is not about sex ? it?s about relationships. With Kamala Devi and Michael ? 12 lovers? Really? ? that they may be more about the sex than anything else. Although, we would like to meet their physical trainer.
But we could be wrong about all of it. We?ll wait for the series to play out before we make a final comment on it. However, in celebration of alternative concepts like polyamory getting somewhat of a serious look by the media, we are going to feature two more blogs over the next couple of weeks to deliver some straight talk about the alternative lifestyle known as polyamory. Tune in next week ? to Showtime and to our blog.
Source: http://chuckandjoannbird.com/polyamory-on-tv-new-showtime-series-to-feature-consensual-non-monogamy/
msft etan patz obama dog doug hutchison larry brown kevin hart thomas kinkade
No comments:
Post a Comment