• protist@retrofed.com
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                2 days ago

                Is this saying a love triangle is a threesome? I’ve literally never heard the term love triangle describe a threesome

                • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  6 hours ago

                  Love triangle is different, and usually context is competitive non-dating and usually in a monogamous context.

                  A “love triangle” is different from a “triangle”.

                  A love triangle is what we see in movies from Hollywood, most commonly with two guys fighting over winning a girl or something.

                  A triangle, when it comes to ENM, is when all three people sleep together.

                  Whereas a triad (ENM term, again) would could be like three people (persons A, B, and C), all living alone. Look at the arrows in the picture, those are the relationships. A and B are in a relationship, but all three are not in a relationship.

                  The way to think about it is, with three people in a triad, there are only three relationships. With a triangle (or another shape where everybody’s in a relationship, like a quad) you add an extra relationship count for the group itself. So for a triangle (or whatever people want to call it if they want to differentiate) where it is threesomes and they all travel as a pack, there are four relationships: each couple and the group itself.

                  And to make it more complicated, the shapes aren’t necessarily closed: some or all of them can have other relationships, sometimes even different types, too. Like three people living and in a group relationship, and person A is simultaneously in a different trianlge or triad, and person C might have basically just a fuck buddy, or even just a cuddle partner, like if that cuddle partner has really really similar high compatibility emotionally but not sexually.

                  ENM is great.

                  Edit: Remember, for it to be ethical (the E in ENM), everybody has to be informed and give explicit consent. And anytime a change is made, you really should renegotiate the entire setup. Communication is everything. It’s much better to over communicate than under communicate, because we live in a world where monogamy and monogamy’s RULES are the assumed expectations in agreements.

                  My partners and I generally will schedule weekly RADAR check ins, and as time goes on, reduce how often we do them as needed.