Emotional Corpses: On the Decostruction of Monogamy, and Critical Sexual-Affective Experiences

Abstract

This article aims to provide a short account of the alternatives to monogamy as they are emerging in contemporary society: it especially deals with the Spanish case, and it relies on the work of Basque scholar Mari Luz Esteban and Catalan scholar Brigitte Vasallo. According to Esteban and Vasallo, monogamy is but an oppressing system serving the purposes of patriarchy and, in more recent times, capitalism: romantic love provides the ideology behind it. The monogamous couple as we know it nowadays, presenting itself as heteronormative and hierarchical, normalizes women’s de facto subordination, and the gratuity of care. The alternatives to monogamy, like polyamory and relationship anarchism, aim to be more equal a system in the distribution of care. On the other hand, they represent a challenge from an economic and legal point of view, in a society that remains capitalist and patriarchal at its core.