Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of Marriage
‘Marriage equality’ has been a widely used slogan and mobilizing concept for LGBTQ+ rights’ movements across the globe striving for formal recognition for ‘same-sex’ or ‘same-gender’ marriages. In this article, we critically interrogate the terminology and political rationality that have given shape...
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MDPI AG
2025-04-01
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| author | Daniel Cardoso Christian Klesse |
| author_facet | Daniel Cardoso Christian Klesse |
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| description | ‘Marriage equality’ has been a widely used slogan and mobilizing concept for LGBTQ+ rights’ movements across the globe striving for formal recognition for ‘same-sex’ or ‘same-gender’ marriages. In this article, we critically interrogate the terminology and political rationality that have given shape to ‘marriage equality’ campaigns. We demonstrate the structural erasure of non-monogamous relations and populations from the changes hoped for and envisioned in these mobilizations. The lack of any genuine and substantial concern with consensual non-monogamies (CNMs) from most of the literature in the field highlights the close entanglement of marriage with monogamy. As a result, ideas are scarce about how meaningful and adequate legal recognition and social policy provisions for a wide range of intimate, sexual, familial, and/or caring bonds or constellations on the CNM continuum could look like. We argue that the critique of the mononormativity inherent to marriage is fundamental to understanding the role of this in the 21st century. We identify the roots of the mononormativity of marriage in its governmental role as a necropolitical and biopolitical technology, evidenced by its ‘civilizing’ function in white settler colonial projects. Because of this, an expansion of the call for equality to include non-monogamous populations does not resolve but rather aggravates the problem. We conclude that any truly queer politics of CNM consequently needs to be anti-marriage. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4dc2e3fd246e439c8e1dee3de74c1ea5 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2076-0760 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-4dc2e3fd246e439c8e1dee3de74c1ea52025-08-20T02:18:01ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602025-04-0114423310.3390/socsci14040233Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of MarriageDaniel Cardoso0Christian Klesse1Department of Communication Sciences, Lusófona University, Lisbon, 1749-024 Lisbon, PortugalDepartment of Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BX, UK‘Marriage equality’ has been a widely used slogan and mobilizing concept for LGBTQ+ rights’ movements across the globe striving for formal recognition for ‘same-sex’ or ‘same-gender’ marriages. In this article, we critically interrogate the terminology and political rationality that have given shape to ‘marriage equality’ campaigns. We demonstrate the structural erasure of non-monogamous relations and populations from the changes hoped for and envisioned in these mobilizations. The lack of any genuine and substantial concern with consensual non-monogamies (CNMs) from most of the literature in the field highlights the close entanglement of marriage with monogamy. As a result, ideas are scarce about how meaningful and adequate legal recognition and social policy provisions for a wide range of intimate, sexual, familial, and/or caring bonds or constellations on the CNM continuum could look like. We argue that the critique of the mononormativity inherent to marriage is fundamental to understanding the role of this in the 21st century. We identify the roots of the mononormativity of marriage in its governmental role as a necropolitical and biopolitical technology, evidenced by its ‘civilizing’ function in white settler colonial projects. Because of this, an expansion of the call for equality to include non-monogamous populations does not resolve but rather aggravates the problem. We conclude that any truly queer politics of CNM consequently needs to be anti-marriage.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/4/233marriagemarriage equalityconsensual non-monogamyLGBTQ+ politicsbiopoliticsnecropolitics |
| spellingShingle | Daniel Cardoso Christian Klesse Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of Marriage Social Sciences marriage marriage equality consensual non-monogamy LGBTQ+ politics biopolitics necropolitics |
| title | Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of Marriage |
| title_full | Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of Marriage |
| title_fullStr | Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of Marriage |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of Marriage |
| title_short | Beyond Equality—Non-Monogamy and the Necropolitics of Marriage |
| title_sort | beyond equality non monogamy and the necropolitics of marriage |
| topic | marriage marriage equality consensual non-monogamy LGBTQ+ politics biopolitics necropolitics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/4/233 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT danielcardoso beyondequalitynonmonogamyandthenecropoliticsofmarriage AT christianklesse beyondequalitynonmonogamyandthenecropoliticsofmarriage |