I resonate with a lot of what you say here. I live on the West Coast of the good ol' USA, and I still run into that "you're okay with WHAT???" attitude with the men that I fall in love with. They simply don't beleive me when I say that I don't get jealous over sexual encounters.

This isn't to say that I don't get "jealous," but it takes a hellova lot more than casual sex to make me see green. I attribute this to the adults I watched around me as I grew up. Several people coming out of one bedroom in the morning was pretty common, so I don't think much about what one night means to me and my S.O.

The trouble is that men in this culture think there's something wrong with me if I don't get pouty when they've flirted with someone else. It's like they thrive on that female negativity, that cat-fight mentality of "he's MY guy." If you don't play the game, they don't respond well. I don't play the game.

Luckily I found me a hippy guy and settled down to a somewhat normal lifestyle. We still have our moments of fresh energy input, as we call it, but it hasn't destroyed us in 12 years.

Im sorry to hear about your atmosphere of misunderstanding, or snap judgements.
My parents have an open dominance and submissive relationship. Its hard to explain to people, without getting tangled.
I too find it really hard, the feelings, and deep understanding are hard to find outside of my tribe. I grew out of my commune a long time ago, but the values, priorities, understanding, and expirience of my elders, parents allows me the prospective that there are other ways.
I too wish I was accepted more as a native in other countries.
The only answer to me, seems to be, to show people, through your wisdom, understanding, expirience and time your backround and interests.
People who take the time apart, and a desire to understand where you come from, will understand your expirience and open-ness.

My Mom was single from the time I was 6 to the time I was 24. She is totally about Monogamy, but just being a Single Mom was REALLY weird to the Townees in all the College Towns I grew up in, though fellow Faculty Brats got it. Still, I knew where babies came from at age 6, got the FULL facts of life speach at 9, and was allowed to keep all my Dad's old porn mags by the time I was 12. My Mom NEVER tried to restrict my sexual activity as a teenager, BUT stressed monogamy and responsibility from 14 on. Of course, she also read Ms. Magazine RELIGOUSLY, and tolerated No NONSENSE from ANY of her Boyfriends. Compared to a lot of Mom's I met at the time she seemed pretty damn different...

Aradia your post cracks me up -- my mother was a midwife, my dad a poet, and they had an open relationship when I was growing up. Thankfully I didn't know at the time, which is probably good because I thought they were weird enough as it was ... and honestly, I don't think I could have dealt with it at the time. That said, when my mom "came out" to me, telling me that she was a polyamorous bisexual and always had been, I was sort of shocked.

Of course, now I identify myself the same way, so I'm not so shocked any more, obviously. :)

Classic Aradia and Ariel! My real first name is Ravenmajel (majel is pronounced sort of like michelle with the J being soft so it rhymes with ma-bell), and my parents too indulged in open relationships.
Mom was a professional student and lived on SSI. Never was sure if she did it because she was truly psychotic (read: child abuser) or because it was an easy way to sponge off the government and be a menace to society.

Dad was a computer techie back when they were all mainframes and took up entry office spacesfor UCLA I think He listened to KPFA in Los Angeles and was a member of "the cult of the monh club" as I heard someone put it. I remember him telling me about listening to some professor explain how the DNA code relates to Sanskrit.

Our house was sort of a crash pad for run-away teenagers when I was a baby, but I never realy got to live in a commune beyond that as a child. Always wanted to though. I sort of full-filled that dream at age 22 living with 13 people in a communal household.

These days I'm perhaps more of a hippy than my parents. Dad's gone now, I think of him as more of a beatnik in some ways. Mom got a AA degree in art, a degree Law, and at least a BA in Psychology!

Anyhow...., they tried to be polyamorous, but they did it badly to say the least. I have to agree that even here in the U.S. and California, one the most liberal states around, that Catholicism has a huge impact on how people see these things. I am also Bisexual and polyamorous by nature and want to live in non-traditional ways. Recently I read a guys post (on a bisexual email list) who was complaining to eharmony.com about their discrimination of openly bisexual couples who wanted to explore other relationships with permission of their partners. They mostly discriminating against polyamory but they also incidently discriminate against bisexuals in the process. So I definitely feel your pain!
As one "child of a flower-child" to another, I bow in your general direction. *wink*