Center-left media outlets know they can gin up a couple of curiosity- or hate-based clicks by periodically profiling some new “trend” in the upper-middle-class mating scene.
“Ethical nonmonogamy” has had its day, “polyamory memoirs” get respectful reviews, and major broadcast networks know they can pull in some rubberneckers curious about pairings that go from “Couple to Throuple.”
After all, once society has deconstructed marriage down to the point of meaninglessness, why should we have any compunction about celebrating such creative alternatives to bourgeois fidelity? If Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice want to go all in on creating a modern-day polycule, what difference does that make to us?
The push to unwind traditional social scripts around marriage, fidelity, commitment, and procreation hasn’t just been a question of individual fulfillment, but…
