In our culture, intimate relationships come with a host of assumptions about the direction they take, including monogamy, marriage and children. Regardless of what choices we make, the Conscious Relationship discussion group is dedicated to encouraging people to make deliberate choices and question whether these assumptions fit our lives.
In our third and fourth meetings, we discussed the different ways people form relationships with each other. We unpacked some of the assumptions that go with intimacy, and the healthy and unhealthy behaviors sometimes associated with forming “couples” or other types of relationships. In our fourth meeting, we used the reality TV show “The Bachelor” as source of common tropes about how we are “supposed” to choose a mate. Below, you’ll find some some links to articles and podcasts we discussed in these meetings, or inspired by the topic.
Our next meeting is November 12 at 6:30pm at Genuine Joe Coffee on 2001 West Anderson Lane. Our next topics are “Trust” and “Caring For One Another.”
“Against the couple form”
“I strapped my boyfriend with homemade explosives and blew him up. His flesh spread everywhere. So did my affection. I’m sick of love. Let’s fall in politics.” — Clementine X. Clementine and Associates from the Infinite Venom Girl Gang
- Against the couple-form [pdf link] — the original essay by Clementine X. Clementine and Associates from the Infinite Venom Girl Gang, first published in 2012 by Lies: A Journal of Materialist Feminism
- Against the Couple Form #1: LOVE — part 1 of a projected 3 part series from the Bitchface Podcast explores whether falling in “love” only happens within a couple, or can friends fall in intimate love? Can we find new ways of constructing loving households?
- Against the Couple Form #2: INTIMACY — in part 2, Bitchface visits with a “cuddle dom/me” and explores other ways of separating touch and physical intimacy from the “couple form”
Other links
- 5 (More) Ways to Radically Exist in Decolonial Love — “The very idea that anyone in a relationship is “owned” has some very colonial roots …”
- The Bachelor: This Is How We Win — “You can wear whatever you want, kiss whoever you want and fuck whoever you want and still be worthy of a fantastic, happy relationship …”
- The Invention of Monogamy — a comic about the sexism inherent in traditional monogamy
- Never Heard of Queerplatonic Relationships? Here’s What You Need to Know — An interview with Kai and Mari, two people in a queerplatonic relationship.
- Polyamory and Queer Anarchism: Infinite Possibilities for Resistance — “A queer rejection of the institution of marriage can be based on an anarchist opposition to hierarchical relationship forms and state assimilation. …”
- Sex Talk Realness: Asexuality — An interview with two anonymous asexual women.
Previously: Resources For Questioning The ‘Relationship Escalator’
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