We’ve been loving a recent series of articles from Slate, called “A Lexicon of Alternative Sexualities.” Each defines a few terms that are fairly-to-very common in alternative sexuality communities and relatively unknown in mainstream culture. Although the author admits that these are subjective definitions, we think that the series could be a pretty good primer for your straight, monogamous, vanilla friends.
It certainly covers a lot of ground: consensual non-monogamy, styles of non-monogamy, poly terms, kink, gender and sexual identity, and insults used to describe more normative folks.
We have just one question: has anyone ever actually identified themselves as a member of Team Chimpanzee or Team Bonobo to indicate whether or not they were monogamous? We had never heard of this before, and we are intrigued. Please let us know if you have, or if there are any terms that you wish that the series had included.
