Meta: monogamy in the AKB 'verse

[nilchance]

Note: this is somewhat unstructured, given that it was written with a dog chewing on my toes. Comments welcome.
***
I don't necessarily think many people in kept-verse are monogamous. I'm admittedly a fan of polyfidelity in fiction, because of the rich opportunities for interconnection and tension, but I also think it would be hard to be a strict monogamous person in this 'verse.

Here my reasoning, based on the tiers of society presented in AKB. For slaves, it's going to be difficult to guarantee that you will only have one lover at a time. You may be offered to company. You may be shared between husband and wife. You may share your primary owner (in the case of a bodyslave) with their spouse, particularly in cases like Jeff's where there's family pressing for marriage and an heir. You may have to sleep with a slave higher in rank than oneself. For owners, you may have a bodyslave and a spouse or lover. You may be invited to share a bodyslave. You may have a lover on the side and a spouse taken for the sake of respectability. Even for those too poor to own slaves but too rich to become one, they're exposed daily to a culture that has undoubtedly been influenced by slavery over time. It's normalized for polyamory to be an option.

Part of what I find interesting about AKB is the redefinition of family, love and sexuality. Jeff has made his own extended family out of friends and ex-lovers, and he has more resources because of that. He can contact Cate to help him with Jensen's reprogramming and know that Jensen will be safe. He can contact Kane to help with the buying of slaves, and Jeremy to help him with the financial needs of the Trust and of his household. Contacting others, staying close with others, is an adaptive advantage in this ruthless 'verse. The middle-class characters and the slaves in the Trust don't have to fear that they'll be sold or disposed of because they built emotional / friendship bonds with Jeff. (Admittedly, the Trust by definition means never having to worry about being disposed of, but Jeff takes in slaves-- and friends, and lovers-- according to need and to some kind of connection. His relationship with Mary Louise went south, but there had to be some reason to buy her in the first place and to take her as his lover.)

Jeff may have to take a bride. Jensen is presented as anxious about the potential for change in his relationship with / closeness to Jeff, but not as traditionally jealous. The Trust openly discusses Jeff's options for a wife, most of them knowing Jeff's feelings for Jensen. Jensen wants to serve; he wants to be good. He may not feel like it's his place to deny Jeff anything, but he also knows the politics of society and the likelihood that he'll be allowed to keep Jeff to himself forever. He will care for what Jeff loves.

Jeremy has sex with Zach and Wendy, but he still has his bodyslave Marisa (and now Misha, though their relationship isn't sexual) and there's no cheating involved. Jeremy helped to raise Ryzer and to support Zach and Wendy through the first difficult months of parenting. Jeremy is there to support them in the delicate position of keeping Ryzer free and Zach safe. Yes, Zach technically belongs to Jeff and is under his protection, but Zach doesn't respond to Jeff like Jensen or Kane; Zach maintains distance between himself and Jeff, whereas he'll let Jeremy closer. Meanwhile, Jeremy has emotional support for when his bipolar starts to interfere with his life.

Monogamy and traditional love have changed in the kept 'verse. I don't necessarily see potential for betrayal when I think about the tangle of relationships in AKB, though of course there will be misunderstandings given the level of communication required. I see potential for deepening the already rich family love bonds, for coming together against a dark and ruthless world.

In short: polyamory yays.

Comments

[katzb101.livejournal.com]

I am very fond of well written and well thought out polyamory *g*. And you know I love the way your mind thinks. :-)

[beanside.livejournal.com]

I love your kinky brain, baby. I really, really do.


and I miss you like burning.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

The middle-class characters and the slaves in the Trust don't have to fear that they'll be sold or disposed of because they built emotional / friendship bonds with Jeff.

I think the thing to note here is that the whole verse emphasizes the importance of bonds of affection and love over bonds of legality (like marriage). It makes sense that a brutal, institutional wealth-based slavery system would have negative consequences for the way that people looked at other institutions, like monogamous marriage. The idea of belonging to anyone *legally* is very painful and real in this universe.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

Ohh, good point. Yes. Zach married Wendy despite having been burned by that system, but he also has Jeremy. THEY do.

There's a lot of polyfidelity in my brain.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Awesome icon.

Are they *legally* married? I wasn't sure, because Zach is still a slave, right? And I know Wendy had to say she didn't know who the father of her baby was. Personally, I think that's a weak point in the storyline, because they do have paternity testing, and you know commerce would use it. Would be just as easy to say that if there was one free parent to claim custody, the child would be free.

[liselisa.livejournal.com]

Sorry to jump in here, but I was reading through the meta and the comments and I was just thinking that commerce probably wouldn't have a reason to do a paternity test unless there was some sort of dispute about the paternity. For every free woman who's just given birth, the government is going to force her to have a paternity test done on the child? That seems like a waste of money unless there's other reason to believe that she's lying.

Also, and maybe because I live in a very corrupt place, it just seems that the government would look the other way when powerful people are involved.

On another topic, I enjoy the meta greatly. I also get the feeling of "Us against the world" from the fic, making "us" so much more important.

I also noticed Jensen was jealous of Ever, but only because he wasn't sleeping with Jeff at the time. That he didn't understand why Jeff would sleep with her and not him. The fact that he would sleep with someone else seemed to make it harder on Jensen that Jeff wasn't sleeping with him.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Yay meta discussion! :-)

My point was rather that hey, if Wendy and Zack are legally married, and Wendy has a child, I would guess the likely suspect would be Zack, and Commerce might force her to prove otherwise. I believe Roman law specifically dictated that the child would be a slave if a female slave gave birth. However, it was pretty easy for the slave in question to "expose" (abandon) the baby, and for a free person to then quickly "adopt" the baby as a free citizen. There's always loopholes.

[liselisa.livejournal.com]

I thought I remembered from way way back that Jensen was surprised that Jeff referred to the two as "married" since slaves could not marry and that it was uncommon for masters to recognize the informal unions/commitments that slaves made among themselves. At the time I'd thought that Wendy was also a slave, so I would definitely be mistaken about the whole thing. Unfortunately, it's a little hard to search for since the story's not on one page. Otherwise I'd look it up. (Darn, an excuse to re-read the entire thing, haha!)

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Heheh. No, Wendy is a free person. Zach is Jeff's slave. I remember because when they talk about Jeff getting married, Wendy was one option, except not really, because she already had a child "out of wedlock". I'm pretty sure they're not legally married, just married in the eyes of the group.

[liselisa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized in later chapters. I just get a little confused. At the end, I'm sure I'll read it all in one go and sort everything out. There are just so many people! I love the complex storyline, but some days my overworked brain is just not up for it.

[poisontaster]

you know commerce would use it.
Why would Commerce use it? Wendy is a free, single woman and is entitled to have as many romantic liaisons as she wants without the interference of the government, just like any other free person.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. See, I was under the impression that if a child had one parent who was a slave, the child also became a slave. Is that wrong? And would Commerce enforce it?

[poisontaster]

My point was, there are a couple factors at work here:

a) people who have slaves are generally wealthy and moderately powerful. If such a person chooses to have or claim a child as theirs and unrelated in any way to their slave, Commerce has no reason and no vested interest/advantage in pressing the point. The system is dependent on the people willing to pay exorbitant sums for slaves. It's stupid to piss them off by doubting paternity without good reason.

b) Wendy is a single, attractive woman in Los Angeles. There's no reason to believe/assume that her body-slave is her only sexual partner. She could have many sexual partners and it's none of the government's business who she chooses to have sex with or have children with. There's no reason for Commerce to butt into the business of every body-slave owning person (woman) who chooses to procreate.

c) While the government depicted is harsh and dystopian, it doesn't have omniscience or unlimited resources (monetarily or in terms of manpower) to spy so comprehensively on every person in the USNA.

Commerce enforces laws concerning children of slaves when the owner (parent/adoptive parent) has no vested interest in protecting/claiming the child. When owners go through various pretexts to claim/adopt children that they've sired/conceived through other means, it's generally an accepted abuse of the system because, again, Commerce has no vested interest in pissing off the people who keep them in business, as it were.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clearing it up! I do like good meta. :-) It's a very cool 'verse btw!

[atypia.livejournal.com]

Would you mind screening my response? I get so funny sometimes, about privacy and stuff. It's weird.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

No worries. *smoosh*

[atypia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! <3

[wyoluvr.livejournal.com]

you know, i sort of had an intelligent response until i got to the bit about Misha and Jeremy's relationship being non-sexual and my brain slammed on the brakes and said "NON-SEXUAL ONLY FOR NOW BITCHES OR HELL WILL ARRIVE." it's possible that my brain overreacted...possibly. or that the ice-cream and strawberries sugar rush has arrived...ahem.

[nilchance.livejournal.com]

HEE. That is all.

[wyoluvr.livejournal.com]

for the record, i continue to feel this way *g*

[lady-roma.livejournal.com]

Good meta-you raise some very logical and profound points that I realyy hadn't thought of. Actually, i was enjoying the interplay of all the characters to take the time to think it out, but it all makes sense. In this 'verse, monogamy would be almost impossible, wouldn't it? I was going to say for the upper middle-class on up, but the lower middle class on down have to worry about slavery, and there go the chances of monogamy out the window again. Hmmm,, these days a family that has never gone through a divorce is very rare, looks like it will be the same with monogamy in the AKB verse.

[lady-roma.livejournal.com]

Good meta-you raise some very logical and profound points that I really hadn't thought of. Actually, i was enjoying the interplay of all the characters to take the time to think it out, but it all makes sense. In this 'verse, monogamy would be almost impossible, wouldn't it? I was going to say for the upper middle-class on up, but the lower middle class on down have to worry about slavery, and there go the chances of monogamy out the window again. Hmmm,, these days a family that has never gone through a divorce is very rare, looks like it will be the same with monogamy in the AKB verse.

[mrswinchester18.livejournal.com]

Wait...did I miss the part or clue or hint where Jeff and Cate had sex?