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Poly or Slutty?

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  • #120841
    Jessy Mae
    Participant

    I honestly don’t know what I identify with. I thought I was the monogamous type, but after I broke up with my long term boyfriend almost 2 years ago, I’ve since had multiple long term lovers, at times within hours of the each other, and I’ve begun to wonder. At first I thought I was just exploring being single. Then I fell in love with one of my lovers and realized that while I did love him, I still wanted to have sex with and cared about all the others. Then the one I fell in love with, who was not only having sex with me, asked me if I would be willing to join him and another partner and it took me a while to say yes, but when I did we had the most incredible experience. I realized then that I had a lot of love to give, but also that I’m not ready to give up my other partners or potential partners. He’s just the most prominent one. This is all new territory for me. I’m not ready to move in with anyone. I don’t want an exclusive relationship with anyone, including the guy I love. Actually, I’ve discovered that I love them all just not in that intense “in mad love” way. One of my ex boyfriends said that he couldn’t see me with just one person now that I’ve discovered this about myself and perhaps he’s right. But I’m now trying to figure out what this is. Am I poly-amorous or just a slut? At first that’s what I thought I must be. But I won’t sleep with just anyone, I do have standards. I have slept with men and then crossed them off the list of lovers. The list has narrowed but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t add more to it. But I can’t help thinking that if I were to find the right man, I would release the others to former lovers and be able to go back to monogamy. I mean every time I’ve been in a committed relationship with a man that is what I’ve done. I am only this way now because I have refused to commit. The offers I’ve had over the past year just weren’t sweet enough. So I’m struggling with what this really is. Any thoughts or comments would be useful. Questions welcome as I am trying to discover my true attitude. Peace & Love!
    J.

    #120846
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear J:

    My answer is: literally Poly-amorous (a numerical fact) and Slutty by traditional social convention for women. You broke the convention for now, and I would be curious to know if you keep it broken on the longer run. I think that a lot of women who do have multiple sexual partners do so because of impulsivity, dysfunction, un-wellness. But a woman who is well and chooses this lifestyle, feeling good about it, that is the exception, I think.

    About how old are you? Your age is relevant to the topic, I believe. I wonder if you are fascinated by this PAL (Poly Amorous Lifestyle, an acronym I just made up) because it is still new for you, a rebel kind of fascination?

    anita

    #120875
    Jessy Mae
    Participant

    Hi Anita,
    I’m in my early 40’s. I don’t think I would have thought about or considered doing this if I were a lot younger. Mostly because of my upbringing. But I have discovered that love isn’t something I can push into a box for one person and be done with it. I truly do not feel that I am a slut. I truly care about all of these men. They all add something to my life, but the biggest thing is that they don’t tie me down. I am free to explore life without inhibition or expectations. I have chosen this, but it wasn’t something I woke up one day and decided on. It was something I woke up to after gradually realizing that I had added lovers to my life but hadn’t subtracted them. In fact, I didn’t intend to have multiple lovers either. I enjoy pleasing and being pleased. And it is a rare man who can please me as often as I need it. In turn, I don’t expect any of these men to enjoy only me and no others. In fact if they tell me they only want that, I tend to cut them loose because that is too much pressure for me. They might fall in love. I might have to give up the others before I am ready to do that. In what I’ve seen, the poly-amorous have a primary partner and then add others to that – and I don’t and really have no desire for a primary. In fact the man I am considering as a primary I’m not even having sex with. He’s strictly platonic.
    So I’m looking for thoughts on this. Any others who may have experienced something like this? Or considered it? Or wondering about it.
    J.

    #120921
    Leah McLarty
    Participant

    hi there, your post intrigued me because i have wondered at times if polyamory is something i would ever be interested in. i like the idea of it…but maybe not ready yet to let go of my current cultural conditioning. but after getting out of a 5-year relationship/engagement…i am having a harder time imagining myself tied down in an exclusive relationship with one man again. your post is reminding me to keep an open mind.

    anyways, i thought i could offer some thoughts here. you say you are “struggling with what this really is”. i interpret that as you are struggling to define what you are going through. my question for you is, what if you didn’t need to define it? to have an answer about yourself? if you are enjoying..experiencing..learning..growing and having positive, healthy experiences, then what is the need to figure it out? you may wake up tomorrow..next week…next year..change your mind. meet a man who makes you feel like you want to be monogamous again. so what? we are constantly evolving and changing beings. we often get so wrapped up in judgment, worrying what society thinks…how maybe we don’t fit in to how we think we should be..we don’t see the box for us to check. we are “this” or we are “that”. are you poly? are you slutty? maybe both. maybe neither. does it matter?? perhaps we like the comfort of being able to define ourselves and relate to others by our definitions, but we also must keep in mind how limiting it can be. do YOU. you don’t owe the world (or even yourself) explanations.

    #120922
    Leah McLarty
    Participant

    also, if you haven’t already you may want to pick up a copy of “The Ethical Slut” by Dossie Easton & Janet Hardy

    #120953
    Alien incident47
    Participant

    South is just a word demean women for being open about her sexuality, from what I can see your a woman who enjoys sex and exploring your boundaries, through multiple partners and trying a threesome is nothing wrong with that. The only shame would be if you denied what you enjoy and who you choose to enjoy it with. So live your life as you please some enjoy life not being tied to one person.

    #120957
    Alien incident47
    Participant

    Slut not south I should prof read my reply better.

    #120978
    Kay Jay
    Participant

    Hi J, I am in the same predicament. I am younger though and my friend feels when will I grow and be in a normal relationship with one man. after I left my 6 year relationship I was so closed off to anything and then I discovered a lot about myself. the lifestyle we chose sets us apart from society because it is looked at as slutty however I believe that I am free sexually, I have had multiple partners this year and I don’t feel guilty about them.

    I am judged to a point where I close off emotionally to any of these men and I tell them before hand so basically its agreements that I come up with and whoever gets attached is cut off.

    however I have taken a liking to one person and I am too afraid to mess up the sexual part of it because we both initiated the agreement and T’s & C’s.

    #120985
    Jessy Mae
    Participant

    Thank you guys so much for all of your responses.
    Freebird, I think you bring up an excellent point. Why define this? I’m happy for the most part with the way things are now, mostly because a man hasn’t come along who really makes me want to give up all the others. Recently I started thinking about this a bit more when I was exploring a potential new love interest who does not know anything about the other men in my life and he mentioned that a few months ago a woman wanted him to be her new guy but she was married and in an open marriage. He said he couldn’t see that working for him. I didn’t bring up anything about me, but I knew right there that we could ever only be friends, in spite of how much I liked him and we had in common. I could tell that if he knew, he would judge me and possibly discontinue our friendship. Our relationship is unique to me because he is the only man I have gone out with multiple times over the span of several months with whom I have never kissed or had any form of sexual contact. I just think he isn’t attracted to me sexually, and while there is a bit of chemistry there it’s not huge for me either. I know he’s completely straight, he was married for 18 years and is dating now and we do talk about sex but his ex wife cheated on him and he has a hard time trusting again. So I’m not thinking he’s gay. The refreshing thing about my relationship/friendship with him is the lack of sex – I’m wondering if it’s possible to be close to someone without it, and how close can you get? It’s also like a personal challenge to myself to see if I can have a close relationship with a man I don’t sleep with.

    Thank you Alien for reminding me that it’s my life and I shouldn’t worry about what other people think. Just do you. That’s what my Ninja says to me all the time. I have nick-named my lovers, he’s one of them.

    Kayj, sounds like we are in a similar situation. I will tell you though, that when I fell in love with one of my lovers it happened without me realizing it. One day I realized I loved him but that I didn’t want to give up the others. It was very conflicting for a while and it took me a couple of months to work though. I dropped a couple of other lovers who got too attached before, but with this guy, probably because we had such an open and honest relationship from the beginning, it was harder for me to do. In the end he has opened me up to new experiences and we are very close overall, but both agree that we are fundamentally different and wouldn’t work as an exclusive couple.

    I think that I was judging based on societies rules. The thing is that I have two kids and I don’t want them wondering about who my boyfriend is, but they have met only one and I have done my best to keep it that way. He understands, and since he also has two kids they have met and are friends too but we are very careful to not be physical in front of any of them. Also, I don’t want them going back to their very traditional father with stories. That could get awkward.

    #120992
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jessi:

    In my effort to attempt to understand your thread topic better I looked up your favorite guru online. In your first post on this website you mentioned Grant Cardone as your favorite guru. Your career is in finance and you are a top performer at your job. You have listened to a lot of audio by Cardone, a motivational speaker in Finance.

    I found this website:lehttp: //knowstartup. com/2016/11/10 -success-lessons-from-grant-cardone-for-entrepreneurs/
    His ten success lessons are:

    “1. Cold calling is not dead…Grant has built a multimillion dollar company through cold calling and he shows that sales practices don’t have to be new and shiny…
    2. You need to be known by your effort…become that guy that works harder than anyone else and you will be rewarded.
    3. If they can’t help you then they will probably hurt you…Make a list of the people you spend time with and in the right column put an ‘x’ if they can’t or don’t help you.
    4. Half of what your parents taught you is holding you back
    5. Liking a person is NOT a reason to do business together…Some people are just meant to be friends, not partners.
    6. 10(times) everything: Take whatever goal you have and multiply it times 10. Even if you come up short, you will achieve more than you originally planned to.”

    There are more, but I will stop here. Do you see a connection between your sharing on this thread, your life experience with sex and relationships, and these 6 sales tactics?

    anita

    #121004
    Jessy Mae
    Participant

    Anita,
    It’s funny you should point that out. I do see a connection – and that’s not a bad thing. It’s just that pushing myself out of my comfort zone I’ve found myself willing to try different things that I would never have considered before. As such I have also found a different kind of happiness within myself then I ever expected. I think we all go through a growth process in trying to figure out where we “fit”.
    Thanks for the insight!
    Jessy

    #121009
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Jessy:

    You are welcome. I thought of “4. Half of what your parents taught you is holding you back” being connected to you sharing that your parents were conservative as is your ex husband, and you freeing yourself from what you were taught.

    I thought “5. Liking a person is NOT a reason to do business together…Some people are just meant to be friends, not partners.” meaning that liking a man is not a reason to have an exclusive relationship with him, some men are just meant to be PALS (my acronym, above).

    And, of course, “6. 10(times) everything: Take whatever goal you have and multiply it times 10. Even if you come up short, you will achieve more than you originally planned to.” is literally the Poly factor.

    anita

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