Polyamory in social, media and identity perspective

Content of research project: Father-mother-child. What some of us reminds on a childhood game is a specific version of relationship and society norm that has within the last 50 years been and still is subject of significant change. Same-sex relationships have slowly but constantly been accepted. In addition, further forms of sexual orientation and gender identity (bi and transgender) gained public visibility and acceptance. What these concepts/identities (subsumed by the acronym LGBT) have in common (along with so called straight people) are relationship characteristics: Sexuality and emotional love is only shared with one specific person. About 15 years ago an additional term hit the academic stage: Polyamory multiple intimate and sexual relationships with informed and consensual partners. Hypothesis: What so far have not sufficiently been asked within the community are questions on self- perception (is being poly a form of sexual orientation, a form of identity, or an intimate practice, or something completely different?); what did happen in ones emotional and sexual history that he/she claims to be polyamorous; how does the social environment (family, friends, work colleagues) react on that kind of relationships; is there a demand for legal recognition in form of registered partnerships or marriage (relevant for example for founding families, insurance issues, pension schemes, inheritance law, etc.), and is recognition by religious institutions an issue? What moreover will be investigated is how the media illustrates those aspects and therefore creates opinion for the wider public, leading to the key question if the inside view matches or clashes with the media representation. Methods: Regional focus of the research project is Austria. In a first step, 30 to 35 people who live in polyamorous relationships, with their primary relationship partners living in and around Vienna will be questioned (by a method called narrative autobiographical interviews). In a second step, about 150 newspaper and magazine articles published since 2007 (representing about a third of all articles) that contain the keyword polyamory will be categorised and interpreted by a method called qualitative content analyses. The two outcomes will at the end be compared. Whats new and special: Until now, international research focus is the Anglo-American region; hardly any surveys have so far been conducted in and focussed on the German speaking area. The demand of recognition by a religious institution has up to now not been asked, and also queries on demands of legal rights are rare. The question of being poly as a sexual orientation has yet not been posed to the community, and an outcome in favour could fuel a discussion far beyond the academic discourse: Does the LGBT-acronym needs the expansion P for polyamorous living people? 1

Goal of the project was to find similarities and differences between the self-perception and the media representation of individuals living in a socially as well as legally not accepted form of relationship: Polyamory, a consensual relationship between more than two people based on emotional love and intimate acts over a longer period of time. Stating the findings in one sentence: The similarities outweigh the differences! For the self-perception, 33 individuals in 14 multiple consensual relationships have been interviewed within a neutral setting. The results have been compared with the media analyses, for which printed newspaper and magazine articles from Austria, Germany and Switzerland containing the world "polyamory" in different spellings have been analysed. Overall a complete survey on 368 articles over one decade (2007 until 2017) has been conducted; six aspects were examined in detail. In regards to love and life history, it could be shown that in media representation as well as in self-perception, falling/being in love with more than one person is the most essential reason for a relationship between more than two people. These insights continued by the second aspect, the categorisation of polyamory as identity, sexual orientation or intimate practice - those three attributions dominate the academic discourse on the topic - but in practical life as well as by periodicals, multiple emotional relationships have been the most quoted and mentioned reason. The (expected) self-identification of being part of an extended LesbianGayBisexualTransgender-community could not be proven. Concerning social acceptance, the results show, that polyamory is currently not accepted by society. The demand for legal recognition (marriage/partnership contract, legal protection for children of intentional multiple relationships, inheritance law, general state responsibility) was in media representation as well as of affected persons of minor importance; religious recognition was an even smaller topic and request. Looking at generating knowledge on polyamory, the periodicals focused on historic and activist celebrities being in multiple relationships, while for involved individual's advice literature and regular meetings with like-minded folks where the most important sources and contact points. In conclusion, the probably most relevant question in regards to a diverse society, the suspected extension of the LGBT-acronym by a "P" for polyamorous seems to be answered for the moment: The critical mass has not been reached yet. But the topic is up and rising, and the media as well as society will be further engaged in the near future.