Book Review: The Ethical Slut, A Practical Guide To Open Relationships

I just finished the very interesting and challenging book, The Ethical Slut, A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Adventures.


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• polyamorous
• polyamory
• ethical
• slut
• monogamy
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[Alexisme1001]

Something never addressed in the discussion of sexual liberation is the hierarchy of sexual attraction,which is, to a great extent, inhuman and unfair. It is likely that many, many people will not benefit from a more sexually liberated society, but will rather be relegated to the bottom of the pyramid. I include within such groups the severely handicapped, those considered ugly, the sexually dysfunctional, men and women who are not physically "endowed", those who are middle-aged and elderly.

[astrolabe1976]

not to sound crass, but aren't those people already at the "bottom" of the pyramid?

[TheNevan60]

@Alexisme1001 - you're assuming those people you mentioned above aren't the recipient of anothers' sexual attraction - that says more about you than anything else. Ditto for your take on what you call the "gay sexual hierarchy"....you need to have a look at some of the gay subcultures like bears, chubbies, silver daddies, etc and realize that age and size have their own attractions...we're not all young shallow twinks who hang out all day shopping and drinking!

[astrolabe1976]

@AlexDino001 read the book!

[AlexDino001]

@Alexisme1001 The hell you talkin bout!?

[Alexisme1001]

Furthermore, the gay sexual hierarchy manifests a kind of materialistic nihilism, since even those at the top of it are eventually overthrown as they age. You're hot, and then you're a troll. You're fresh, and then you're a husk- adored, and then discarded, by a desperate cohort of hungry ghosts (like the Pretas in the Tibetan mandala) all undergoing the same process, that styles itself "a community," as if to sugar-coat a mountain of excrement.

[Alexisme1001]

Yes, they are at the bottom, but I suppose I am beginning to question the gay hierarchy, despite the fact that I recognize that I, too, am shallow when it comes to deciding to whom I'm attracted. The inhumanity of the hierarchy degrades any notion of a "gay community," and it also hinders efforts at social/political liberation, for if the only people benefiting from it are the sexual elite, who shit upon those beneath them, why should anyone else work for it?

[FlyingFree333]

Always good to see someone approaching a new concept with an open mind in spite of a lifetime of indoctrination.