Monogamy privilege; eroge are kinda poly-friendly
My last post about privilege was removed due to being labeled as offensive by the mods. However, this time, as I'll be addressing a specific kind of privilege, I believe there won't be any problems of that sort. I'm still waiting for more people to vote at the poll, as it's currently at a draw. If you haven't yet, please do.
All our lives, we're flooded with this notion that love can only exist towards one person at a time. And that is not true. The jail that are closed relationships usually lead to sorrow and regret. Just because people aren't allowed to have a bigger heart. While very few people nowadays are openly polyamorous, I believe there are much more closeted ones hiding out there. Seriously, just think about it. How many people would be much happier today if "monogamy" weren't considered the norm?
As pointed out by @Chronopolis, some assumptions are preferred or necessary. I, however, don't believe this is the case when it comes to someone's relationship orientation. A relationship orientation doesn't involve pronouns or sex preferences. It's something that may or may not come up in a conversation. That's why we can all easily avoid making assumptions about it. But still, the vast majority of society is still very conservative on that sense, thus, monogamous people are privileged in the sense that the whole notion society has of love and sex is a part of their life. The following is a list of examples of monogamy privilege you've probably never realized they were: (Note that I'm not saying monogamous people do not exist or that they are all polyphobic. Yes, there are lots of people who genuinely prefer only one partner, but there are also lots who don't)
1. Your family is legally recognized and you can enjoy all the benefits that come with it.
2. The validity of my love is never questioned.
3. Full representation of my relationship orientation in media.
4. In daily conversations, people don't use monophobic concepts of certain words (like family is always two partners and kids)
5. I can walk with my partner without having people staring at us with weird looks
6. I am not identified by my relationship orientation.
Now, the second thing about this issue: eroge. Honestly, among all the media, eroge deserves praise for this. And that's kind of sad, considering eroge doesn't portray those relationships realistically and it's usually confined to a single model: one man and women. But as this post is focusing on the positive aspects, I'll leave the negative ones for a later occasion. Western media almost never features polyamorous relationships (except porn). When it comes anime, manga and LNs, even the harem ones who could really use a nice harem ending, mostly choose not to. But hey, at least the harem genre itself is some kind of progress, isn't it? VNs, on the other hand, present much more cases of polyamory. Usually, it comes in two ways: harem endings and shimaidon routes. I think this is great because, even if just by a little, it shows people that polyamory isn't this monster society says it is, and that people can love more than one person at the same time.
See you next time!
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