More than Two… but not Right Now: Interpretations and Responses to Covid-19 Measures on Reddit for Two Communities of Consensual Non-Monogamy

Abstract

Using Owen’s Thematic Analysis, we reviewed the Reddit posts of participants in two online communities regarding consensual non-monogamy (CNM) during the January 2021 peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 5,209 comments, 465 unique users in the /polyamory and /swinging forums on the social media platform Reddit referred to the pandemic with two themes emerging as most salient. In the first theme, participants described, interpreted, and responded to the social limitations of the Covid-19 era, with particular attention to limitations on CNM identity and behavior during the pandemic. In the second theme, participants articulated concerns about individual and social health. In addition to strictly personal concerns about physical and mental health, participants described challenges to the well-being of relationships and communities and ways to manage risk and mitigate social damage. We discuss the implication of these findings in light of the unique social structure of CNM communities.