good short reading on polyamory

[wordygirl]

Does anyone know of a good, short article or story that would help someone who is curious about polyamory understand it better? My students want to learn more about it and I can give them a mini lecture but would also like to give them a short, engaging reading if I can find one.

Comments

[mspurrmeow]

There are some really great paragraph-or-two passages from Heinlein's 'Friday' about the main character's realization and understanding of it that I once copied for some friends. If you have read it and have a copy handy, you may be able to find them much faster than I.

[lemur_lady]

I'm fond of tacit's website; he has a pretty good FAQ article here, though I don't know if it'd be too long for your purposes.

[indywind]

I'll vote seconding Tacit's writing: it think his article "Polyamory--what, like, two girlfriends?" hits most of the main points.

And gently disagree with the rec for passsages from Friday--though I enjoy that book for a fun read, I wouldn't use it for introducing someone to new veiws of relationships, because the misogyny common in the period when it was written remains implitictly evident, despite Heinlein's intention to the contrary. To my mind it would take a second lecture on textual bias and historical contect to make Friday useful; likewise the other fiction I can think of that deals with polyamory (Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing, for instance.)

What I would like is a short reading that is more descriptive than explanatory. But I haven't found it yet. If I do I'll let you know.