Plurisexualities and consensual non-monogamies: Challenging normativities in Italy

This chapter focuses on the interconnection between theories and practices of consensual non-monogamy and identities/practices of plurisexuality. In particular, I analyse the narratives of plurisexual respondents among my sample of 60 people who I interviewed for my PhD project on the qualitative exploration of consensual non-monogamies in the Italian context. The idea to deepen this specific aspect emerged from the consideration that almost half of the people of my sample (27) defined their sexual orientation as bisexual or pansexual or heteroflexible; this number increases to 32 if we include people who defined themselves as not strictly monosexual (e.g. “questioning”, or people who preferred not to use any label). The aim of the chapter is not to reach generalisations and even less to establish causal relations in any sense, but rather to offer an overview of the narratives of my interviewees, who move in a wide range of possibilities, and with different degrees of resistance to heteronormativity, cisnormativity, compulsory monogamy, monosexism, binegativity and bi-erasure. The chapter also tries to highlight the transformative and subversive potential of the intersection between these two identities/practices. This intersection challenges also the strategies of the respective communities of reference that go towards normalisation and victimisation, such as binormativity and polynormativity.