ABSTRACT
Feminist anti-monogamy arguments signify a longer-standing endorsement of the value of erotic autonomy within feminist politics. Different currents within North American and European feminist movements have presented vocal critiques of monogamy as an integral part of hetero-patriarchal gender relationships. This chapter focuses on bifeminist rejections of monogamy from the 1970s onwards. Drawing on my own and other people’s research, I highlight the prevalence of distinctively feminist voices in debates on nonmonogamy in bisexual activist circles. An analysis of core texts within the bisexual non-monogamy debates shows that bifeminist anti-monogamy critiques share some of the core assumptions prevalent within other feminist currents (such as lesbian feminism and heterosexual feminism). Bifeminist arguments have been oscillating between radical, liberal, and queer-feminist positions (without being limited to them), implying different conceptualisation of a politics of erotic autonomy. In all their differences, bifeminist critiques tend to articulate a distinctive bifeminist standpoint, grounded in references to collective identities, culture, and politics.
