Polyamory in the News
. . . by Alan M.



December 5, 2014

Nick TV's Degrassi introduces a "polyamory" plotline, sort of.


The teen high-school drama Degrassi, now in its 14th season and highly regarded for its treatment of real issues, just made a thing of introducing the word "polyamory."

Two girls are getting into a romantic relationship; one says she wants to date others, is into polyamory, and "I just don't know if I buy into this heteronormative idea of romantic love." Her budding romance partner stumbles a bit and then agrees that it's okay and says she thinks the same way too. Watch the clip.

But then it turns out the budding romance was faking it. She takes it all back and declares she is "a one-woman woman, it's just who I am." The first then admits that maybe she was faking too because she was scared of getting too close. Those parts are in the full episode at 12:10, 15:00, and 16:55.

The show makes "polyamorous" just seem to mean "dating around."

Says one commenter on the page, "I am polyamorous the way Jack was describing, and this was a terrible introduction to the topic. Jealousy and insecurity win! Ugh."

Says another, "Jack's using desperate hipster excuses as defense mechanisms, to cover up her commitment issues."

Update: This just belongs here (used by permission of Kimchi Cuddles):


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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The teens may not grok poly, but that is exactly what teens do in general, trying to understand complex social concepts for the first time, if they have not had any exposure to them. So bad depiction of poly, good depiction of how teens operate.

My older grandson, now 13, grokked poly when he was 8. We were at Polycamp Northwest and he saw me kiss one of my lovers. Later he came up to me and told me he saw that and asked if Grandma knew. I said of course Grandma knows. He said, oh, I guess that's why they call it Polycamp.

December 06, 2014 12:12 PM  

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