Polyamory and daytime television

Last night I spent the evening with some non-monogamous friends and, inevitably, a portion of the evening was devoted to watching and commenting on This Morning's debate on polyamory. Tomorrow is the seventh Polyday and so the main organiser, Maxine Green, had drummed up a bit of press for the event which the producers of this mainstream daytime television show had obviously noticed. If you've ever seen the show, you'll know that it is a mix of blandness that is designed to appeal to stressed out stay-at-home parents, hungover students and retired Daily Mail readers. It was at its best in my own student days when it came live from the Albert Dock in Liverpool, Richard and Judy presented, and Fred Talbot's floating weather map had the occasional streaker visiting it. These days, it's as old and tired as Agony Aunt Denise Robertson. Why they wanted to know more about non-monogamous lifestyles is anyone's guess.

For this so-called 'debate', Maxine and two of her metamours were on the studio sofa to explain polyamory to the puzzled presenters and This Morning's aforementioned Agony Aunt, Denise. Although the three of them came across as intelligent, reasoned, calm and happy, the show's presenters continually interrupted their important points and made little attempt to understand their views or even put across a viable alternative. Despite being the most understanding, Eamonn Holmes still managed to surprise the three women by asking if they were simply the victims of the greedy man they all share but, when Denise was brought into the discussion, it got even worse. Apparently "it'll all end in tears", according to the narrow-minded veteran advice-giver. Just like all those monogamous couples who get divorced then, eh? Denise made no effort to listen to or understand the polyamorous side of the discussion and continued to assert that she knows best, despite clearly having no clue that there are non-monogamous people all over the world who fit all sorts of categories. We are single, partnered, parents, married, childfree, young, old and all very happy indeed with our choices in life.

My friends and I were absolutely stunned at how the 'debate' was handled by This Morning but, once the ranting died down, we decided that Denise Robertson simply needs a bit of education. It was suggested that we write to her with problems such as "I am extremely happy with my polyamorous lifestyle and wonderful loving partners, but my parents don't understand. How can I explain it to them?" to see if she responds. Something tells me our correspondence would end up at the bottom of the pile.

Image via itv.com