The Ethical Slut

I've been wanting to read a book called "The Ethical Slut" for a while now.  Finally, on Thursday, I took myself off to the Wellington Public Library to borrow it.  The Ethical Slut is described as 'a practical guide to polyamory, open relationships and other adventures'.

I've been interested in the idea of open relationships for a while, and I've never really brought into the whole idea of monogamy despite being involved primarily in monogamous relationships.  I don't believe in love at first sight and I don't believe in soul mates.  I think relationships are something that require commitment and hard work; if you're willing to put that hard work into more than one relationship, what's the issue?

Of course, in the real world, it's not that simple.  People are jealous and vindictive and spiteful, so often, things don't go to plan.  Did I mention that people are jealous?  This jealously isn't necessarily a bad thing, like people tend to think of.  Jealousy can stem from other reasons, like love, instead of simply being a 'I don't want to share my toys' sort of thing.

I can see that open relationships probably wouldn't work for all people, but how would you know if you don't try?  Clearly, it's not something readily accepted by society in general.  In fact, most people I've spoken with it openly dislike the idea.  It seems, in my experience, that girls are much more open to the idea than boys.  I wonder if it's because girls are better at multi-tasking, or if it's just because boys don't like to share?

I'm very interested in reading this book, and I'll be keen to see if or how my attitude changes after reading it.