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The problem with discussing Poly topics
Sep. 1st, 2004 01:55 amBasically, our society has hundreds and hundreds of years of anti-poly programming, linguisticly and culturally. We don't have the right words to discuss it. NeoPaganism has the same problem.
Back in the early 1980's I started and moderated for a number of years the Ottawa Valley Pagan Discussion Group. It was a biweekly gathering of various NeoPagans in the Ottawa area. Things were very hard at the first, as when someone said "witch", to some that meant a person who had achieved First Degree or higher, others it meant anyone who practiced Wicca, and others thought it was anyone doing magick. We ended up having to go back and totally rebuild all of our implicit & explicit meanings, definitions and personal biases about "simple" words like Witch, Witchcraft, Wicca, The Craft, etc. And only then were we able to actually have a proper discussion about issues that dealt with those words.
Judging from the various discussions I've had over the years about Polyamoury, something similar has to be done with each group...I mean, just the word means so many things to different people, even Dictionary.com 's definition is muddy: "participation in multiple and simultaneous loving or sexual relationships"
Once everyone agrees on definitions, *then* you can actually start having discussions...and remember, communication is only possible between equals, so make sure everyone get's off their high horse! [grin]
p.s. This was from another discussion on someone else's LJ.
Back in the early 1980's I started and moderated for a number of years the Ottawa Valley Pagan Discussion Group. It was a biweekly gathering of various NeoPagans in the Ottawa area. Things were very hard at the first, as when someone said "witch", to some that meant a person who had achieved First Degree or higher, others it meant anyone who practiced Wicca, and others thought it was anyone doing magick. We ended up having to go back and totally rebuild all of our implicit & explicit meanings, definitions and personal biases about "simple" words like Witch, Witchcraft, Wicca, The Craft, etc. And only then were we able to actually have a proper discussion about issues that dealt with those words.
Judging from the various discussions I've had over the years about Polyamoury, something similar has to be done with each group...I mean, just the word means so many things to different people, even Dictionary.com 's definition is muddy: "participation in multiple and simultaneous loving or sexual relationships"
Once everyone agrees on definitions, *then* you can actually start having discussions...and remember, communication is only possible between equals, so make sure everyone get's off their high horse! [grin]
p.s. This was from another discussion on someone else's LJ.
