The Naked Truth | Open relationships: their rules, risks and rewards – a pleasure coach explains
Sex educator Sara Tang believes open relationships work if both partners are honest and lay down ground rules. They can enhance trust and love between a couple, she says
If someone tells you that they are in an open relationship, it means they have a “free pass” to sleep with other people, but are still – somehow – committed to their partner. It may seem oxymoronic to you, but it does happen.
Bewilderment and disbelief are natural reactions to an open relationship, because we are bound by societal norms and most people in a stable romantic partnership will view their exclusivity to one another as the ideal relationship structure.
Nevertheless, it does seem antithetical to say that people in open relationships are just as committed to each other as those in monogamous ones.
Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada disagree with this assumption and have found that people in open relationships are just as satisfied and happy as their monogamous counterparts. In a study, they write: “People in consensual, non-monogamous relationships experience the same levels of relationship satisfaction, psychological well-being, and sexual satisfaction as those in monogamous relationships.”
Coincidentally, the study was released at about the same time a UK couple talked about their four-year polygamous arrangement in a newspaper interview last month. The boyfriend said he initiated the move when he felt their six-year relationship had gone stale.