Deconstructing the ideal of fidelity: A view from LGB psychology.

Hegarty, P. J. (2013). Deconstructing the ideal of fidelity: A view from LGB psychology. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 13(1) 31 - 33.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2012.01298.x

Abstract

This commentary on The Fewer The Merrier (TFTM) adopts a lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) lens. Although LGB people commonly construct successful consensual nonmonogamous (CNM) relationships, the focus on opposite-sex relationships obscured some aspects of U.S. society that are actively resisting the stigmatization of CNM relationships. I call attention to the historic ways that “adultery” has been legally defined in gendered terms, and argue for an analysis of social stigma that engages substantively with qualitative research about how CNM is lived among people of diverse sexualities.