Mimi Schippers’ Beyond Monogamy: Polyamory and the Future of Polyqueer Sexualities (2016) sits firmly in the academic lane. It’s not a relationship manual, nor a memoir — it’s a cultural and feminist exploration of how non-monogamy challenges, reshapes, and sometimes replicates social norms. Think of it less as “how to navigate jealousy” and more as “what does polyamory mean for society as a whole?”

What It’s About

Schippers examines polyamory through the lens of gender, feminism, and queer theory. She argues that polyamory has radical potential — to disrupt mononormativity, compulsory heterosexuality, and patriarchal control of intimacy. But she also points out how easily poly spaces reproduce the very hierarchies and exclusions they aim to dismantle.

Core themes include:

• Polyqueer sexuality. How polyamory intersects with queer liberation and challenges the “compulsory coupledom” model.
• Normativity and hierarchy. How poly folks sometimes re-create couple privilege, hierarchies, and exclusion despite their radical intent.
• Politics of desire. Who gets included in poly spaces, who gets left out, and why.
• Cultural imagination. How polyamory can inspire new ways of thinking about family, love, and community.

Strengths

• Sharp critique. Schippers doesn’t just celebrate polyamory — she interrogates it.
• Academic rigour. Grounded in feminist and queer theory, it’s well-sourced and thought-provoking.
• Big-picture view. It moves the conversation from personal logistics to cultural meaning.

Weaknesses

• Dense and theoretical. This is written for academics and students, not casual readers.
• Not practical. No scripts, no exercises, no “how-to.”
• Niche audience. If you’re not into theory-heavy writing, it can feel inaccessible.

Why It Still Matters

Polyamory is often marketed as a personal lifestyle choice, but Schippers reminds us it’s also a political act — one that reflects and reshapes social structures. For ENM communities that want to move beyond logistics and into activism, Beyond Monogamy is essential. It shows how non-monogamy can be radical… but also how easily it can slip back into reinforcing the very norms it seeks to disrupt.

In short: this isn’t the book you hand to a new partner who’s nervous about dating poly. It’s the one you read when you want to understand the cultural stakes of open love.