The Relationship Anarchist: Deepen Your Connections with Friends, Lovers, and Others

Explore your full capacity for love.

Many people’s life choices are shaped by high-stakes societal pressures to find “the one” and make them an emotional and financial partner, our lifeboat, our everything. Meanwhile, feelings of loneliness are at an all-time high and increases in cost of living and political divisions threaten too many of our safety and survival. The Relationship Anarchist invites you to build a resilient constellation of loving relationships—which may or may not include a monogamous romantic partnership.

Sexuality and relationship educators Drs. L. Kris Gowen and Lauren Lichty challenge cultural norms around how we “do relationships”—platonic, sexual, romantic, and others—by bringing together the principles of relationship anarchy, trauma-informed approaches, mutual aid, and healthy relationship practices. Beyond the binary of monogamy and polyamory, they invite you to take a queer, feminist approach to all the close relationships and friendships in your life and build true communities of care.

Each chapter of The Relationship Anarchist provides prompts and tools to support you in rethinking and strengthening your relationship network. It provides a practical, empathetic path through the societal bullshit that limits us so we can open up an alternative, expansive future for all of our relationships.