Have Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer permanently tainted ENM?
Or has their abuse within the guise of an open marriage had a negligible impact on the ENM community? I am aware that abuse in non-monogamy is hardly a new thing and Franklin Veaux seems to be another, relatively recent example. IMHO, this specific scenario involving Nei preying on vulnerable young women and Amanda's complicity highlights the issue of leveraging wealth and financial dependency over people such as employees and tenants, more so than the fluid designs inherent to an open marriage. If someone is both wealthy and nominally ethically non-monogamous, I think there are a heap of complex issues that arise from leveraging that wealth into initiating and practicing relationships. Irrespective of whether one is non-monogamous or non-monogamous; lumpen, working, upper or middle class, entangling professional relationships with personal ones (i.e. dating tenants and employees) are always going to be innately problematic because of power asymmetries.