Open relationship
Encyclopedia : O : OP : OPE : Open relationship
See also open marriage.
An open relationship denotes a relationship (usually between two people) in which participants are free to take other partners; where the couple making this agreement are married, it is an open marriage. While 'open relationship' is sometimes used as a synonym to 'polyamory' or 'polyamorous relationship', these terms are generally differentiated with the "open" in 'open relationship' usually refers to the sexual aspect of a non-closed relationship, whereas polyamory refers to the extension of a relationship by allowing bonds to form (which may be sexual or otherwise) as additional long term relationships:
- Some relationships place strict restrictions on partners (e.g. polyfidelity); such relationships are polyamorous, but not open.
- Some relationships permit sex outside the primary relationship, but not love (cf swinging); such relationships are open, but not polyamorous.
- Some polyamorists do not accept the dichotomies of "in a relationship/not in a relationship" and "partners/not partners"; without these divisions, it is meaningless to class a relationship as 'open' and 'closed'.
- Some polyamorists consider 'polyamory' to be their philosophical orientation — they believe themselves capable and desirous of multiple loves — whereas 'open relationship' is used as a logistical description: that is, it is how their polyamory is expressed or implemented. They would say of themselves, for instance, "I am polyamorous; my primary partner and I have an open relationship (with the following ground rules)...."
Several other forms of nonmonogamous relationship are listed at poly relationship.
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