You Say Potato, I Say Polyamory

Amy Gahran, communications professional and Poynter contributor, and Amy Alkon, syndicated columnist, got into the on-line equivalent of a cat fight recently. And why? Use of the word polyamory in Alkon’s headline in the Ventura County Reporter. Gahran wrote:

Unfortunately, the article involved an issue of blatant sexual/emotional irresponsibility in a relationship, not polyamory (which means being open to having more than one intimate, committed partner at a time with the full knowledge and consent of all involved).

And Alkon replied:

In this case, I maintain my point from before: The headline was ironic and I made clear in the column that what they had wasn’t polyamory, but a case of a guy cheating.

And it went downhill (or uphill, depending on the POV) from there. Since Alkon has no control over headlines, the OC Register used a different one. The original letter is from a woman whose boyfriend is a serial hugger. FBLA says dump him.

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