Forbidden Intimacies

Polygamies at the Limits of Western Tolerance (Globalization in Everyday Life)

By: Melanie Heath

Narrated by: Kris Hambrick

Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

In the past thirty years, polygamy has become a flashpoint of conflict as Western governments attempt to regulate certain cultural and religious practices that challenge seemingly central principles of family and justice. In Forbidden Intimacies, Melanie Heath comparatively investigates the regulation of polygamy in the United States, Canada, France, and Mayotte. The case studies illustrate a continuum of justice, in which some groups, like white fundamentalist Mormons in the U.S., organize to fight against the prohibition of their families' existence, whereas African migrants in France face racialized discrimination in addition to rigid migration policies.

The matrix of legal and social contexts, informed by gender, race, sexuality, and class, shapes the everyday experiences of these relationships. Heath uses the term "labyrinthine love" to conceptualize the complex ways individuals negotiate different kinds of relationships, ranging from romantic to coercive. What unites these families is the secrecy in which they must operate. As government intervention erodes their abilities to secure housing, welfare, work, and even protection from abuse, Heath exposes the huge variety of intimacies, and the power they hold to challenge heteronormative, Western ideals of love.

The book is published by Stanford University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2023 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A valuable contribution to the literature. Highly recommended." (Janet Bennion, Northern Vermont University)

"An outstanding and much-needed map of the many forms that polygamy takes across borders of nation, race, language, culture, law, policy, and time period." (Martha Ertman, University of Maryland Law School)

"This beautifully honed study definitively overturns misconceptions of polygamy. Its gift is to show that plural marriages endure in complex ways..." (JyotiPuri, Simmons University)

so much to learn from this book

As a polyamorous religious woman, married to two wives i am so refreshed and encouraged to hear good and careful resurch on the whay racist white centric monogamous asumtions have been used to disenfranchise poligamist people. Also from with in the polyamorus community with the 'that's not us' stance.

Thank you so much for crafting these some beautiful some painful stories and placing them them with in a geopolitical context.

We will use this as a book discutions in our poly talk group.

Worth every minute!

The complicated and racial relationship between Western law and polygamous relationships

The subject matter was well researched and written. The narrator was extermely professional with a consistent, clear delivery. I highly recommend this book and would like to hear more books from the narrator.