October 28, 2022

"The geometry of a throuple is complex. With a couple, there’s only a straight line connecting two dots. But introduce a third point..."

"... and so many more possibilities emerge — only one of which is an equilateral triangle. Although the Third slept between us in bed, sat across from us at dinner and walked between us holding both of our hands, the angles in our throuple kept shifting."

From a NYT "Modern Love" essay, "A Throuple’s Tricky Geometry" by Evan Sterrett.

I found this story hard to believe — 3 men and a chihuahua sleeping night after night in a queen-size bed?

One early July morning, I opened my eyes to my boyfriend making out with the guy who had been living with us for the past month. Not really a fan of sex before tooth-brushing, I smiled, mumbled “hot” and turned over....

I see I have a tag for "geometry." When did I ever blog about geometry before?

57 comments:

tim maguire said...

It's hard to see how a throuple could last. Each person needs to be into the other two more or less equally and also not get jealous at being left out of the occasional one-on-one that will inevitably happen. If two are fighting, which one does the third console? And how could that not create its own bad feelings?

No, only a couple can be stable over time absent an extreme power imbalance such as you see in polygamous societies.

Kylos said...

Three points always make a triangle

Blair said...

TGDR

(Too Gross, Didn't Read)

https://youtu.be/X3Qve4nXMYI

Quaestor said...

This geometry of a "throuple" (an unknown word, according to Apple) is the basis of the famous three-body problem in astrophysics, which frustrated even Newton's awesome intellect. Newton eventually gave up and postulated the intervention of angels to keep his clockwork universe from blowing a mainspring.

The arrogant ignorance of these perverts seeking to "explore non-binary relationships" is astounding. Do they really believe they are the first to tread that ground, that multitudes of failed attempts to defy Nature do not litter the backroads of history? Just like in Newton's problem the third body inevitably gets ejected into the Void.

Robert Marshall said...

Well, at least he wasn't making out with the chihuahua.

Not then, anyway.

Do dogs carry the pox, or is it just monkeys? Asking for a friend.

Modern "Love".

Dan from Madison said...

A throuple. As my wise grandfather was fond of saying "what could possibly go wrong?"

Big Mike said...

I found this story hard to believe — 3 men and a chihuahua sleeping night after night in a queen-size bed?

A Queen?!?! I agree with you, Althouse. A queen mattress is only 60” wide — even if the guy in the middle is always spooning (or being spooned) and the three of them are very skinny, that’s pretty tight.

Big Mike said...

@Kylos, if the three points are collinear then there is no triangle.

Enigma said...

A gay / single-sex throuple is a nothing. All the members weren't going to reproduce, and are dead ending their DNA. They might as well be members of a mountain climbing team, a military, or a gang. They might die on an adventure, die in combat, or die from a disease. Same outcome. Risk-taking males often die these ways.

A reproductive throuple with at least one male and female is a romantic cliché. Love triangle. Jealous woman. Cheating husband. Ménage a trois. These either work or fail based on those involved, but are surely the best source of content for romance dramas. Still, when pregnancy arrives the female(s) involved are highly likely to seek security/grow jealous if they don't have enough assets to survive. But, some Mormons and practitioners of Islam make polygamy work too.

Lexington Green said...

Disgusting.

Jersey Fled said...

More trash from the NYT.

And by the way, where do they find these people?

rhhardin said...

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with dogs.

rhhardin said...

Three points in a line make a degenerate triangle.

gilbar said...

throuple sounds All Modern.. UNTIL you see that they're talking about male homosexuals..
THEN, you remember that male homosexuals are (and have ALWAYS been) Wildly promiscuous.

IF,
your gay partner is (Mostly) confining himself to sex with guys he brings home consider yourself lucky

MartyH said...

It seems to me that the person in the middle is in charge.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

Just do what feels good. Chances are you'll have no regrets.

Dave Begley said...

The NYT celebrates mental illness and perversion because that’s who their readers are.

Howard said...

Morning titillating tantalizing topics for Trumpsters.

Lurker21 said...

I found this story hard to believe — 3 men and a chihuahua sleeping night after night in a queen-size bed?

Isn't that the sequel to Three Amigos? The movie's not going to be made. Steve Martin and Martin Short as Mexicans is cultural appropriation, and nobody wants to see Chevy Chase ever again.

Wouldn't the point of a throuple or quadrouple be that one gets a night off and some "me time" every now and then? Or that things aren't the same every night? Otherwise, why not just be monogamous?

Joe Smith said...

Men are pigs.

Tom T. said...

male homosexuals are Wildly promiscuous.

You mean "get to be wildly promiscuous."

Curious George said...

Throuple? I'm going to thromit.

Richard said...

All the news that's fit to print? The NYT has now become a porn site.

Leland said...

Triumvirates have a powerful history, but they chose a modern term that is so lame.

Static Ping said...

Non-monogamous romantic relationships tend not to work for very long. I suppose there are some people who can make it work, but it usually just devolves into infighting and inevitable breakup. It is difficult enough to make a long-term connection with one person with conflicting needs and wants. Adding more people just adds more conflicting needs and wants such that it is usually impossible to come up with a compromise that works. But, you know, monogamy is a tool of the patriarchy or something and no one wants to learn from history, so go ahead make the mistakes that have been made repeatedly for thousands of years.

The human race was born yesterday.

TreeJoe said...

Attention seeking at a premier newspaper. Surely a sign of greatness.

Mr Wibble said...

Remember when th seconds predicted that gay marriage would lead to attempts to normalize polygamy? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

To follow up on Big Mike @0700-
The only people who think this interesting are the designers at Southwest, Delta, and the other airlines.
They get three people (and a dog!) into a space 60 inches wide??? How do they do that?"

For the rest of us, just another example of the termite-like purposeful destruction of our culture. Non-productive weirdos doing weird, non-productive things, and the editors of the NYT are instructing us to see this as just another lifestyle.
Society has always had NPW (non-productive weirdos), but until this generation they kept to themselves and were not put up for us to admire or even have to think about, unless we were writing an essay for our Abnormal Psychology course.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

Blogger Howard said...

"Morning titillating tantalizing topics for Trumpsters."

Translation: Join me in making fun of people who notice how insane the mainstream left is.

Fail.

Sebastian said...

At least two decades ago, well before SSM was in the legal works, a cutting-edge gay friend told me this was becoming a thing. Interesting that it took so long to become a public thing. Like other features of gay culture, it probably had to be suppressed for some time in the interest of the normalizing SSM campaign.

Of course, from a traditional petty-bourgeois point of view, throuples seem bound to be unstable, even "gross." From the point of view of ordinary gay practice and opposition to the strictures of "marriage," it may be a decent compromise, adding a bit of stability in actual relationships while still allowing for plenty of sex, without anyone assuming throupleness needs to last.

Nancy said...

The problem is that the one in the middle can't stick his feet out from under the covers.

Biff said...

I was surprised at how eager I was to read an Althouse post about math...and then I saw the words, "From a NYT 'Modern Love' essay."

Smilin' Jack said...

"The geometry of a throuple is complex. With a couple, there’s only a straight line connecting two dots. But introduce a third point...and so many more possibilities emerge...”

This would be much more interesting if it involved three girls and the Times provided detailed illustrations of how the geometry works.

Narayanan said...

is there video of them playing 3-car=choo-choo=train?

traditionalguy said...

Do they draw straws? If not, then there is a dominant one and two submissive ones. I suspect the one that has the money rises to the dominancy.

But as a lawyer, I rejoice at the amount of new business this will create. And think of the lucrative church splits and garden variety blackmail cases not to mention the Defense of murder cases.

J Scott said...

Triumvirates have always been unstable. They always fall apart.

Lurker21 said...

There was that story from New York about the live-in lover who was allowed to renew the lease when the lessee died. The case was more complicated than high school geometry, though. It wasn't a throuple. The lessee had a long-term relationship with another fellow who had his own apartment (a marriage? I don't know) and a relationship with the roommate. So, more like polygamy (or concubinage?) than the egalitarian, mutual, and reciprocal throuple.

William said...

I don't think a stable monogamous relationship is the best way to achieve sexual fulfillment. It is, however, the best way to raise sane children and avoid disease. I guess raising children is not a priority for many gay couples, but avoiding disease should be. ...Do lesbians go in for throuples? That would be pretty hot.
Even hotter would be if women of fluid sexuality went in for throuples with one male. If only life were more like a porn movie....How long before throuples complain about visitation and inheritance rights?

Randomizer said...

In engineering, a truss is the most stable configuration.

In humans, a three-person group is the most unstable configuration because it's always two against one.

Drago said...

Howard: "Morning titillating tantalizing topics for Trumpsters."

More of Howard's please please please stop noticing how insane we leftists are!!

I feel bad for Howard. With Elon now in charge at Twitter, he and his pals can't ban libs of tik tok anymore.

Tough break for you Howard. Hang in there tiger.

Rollo said...

Clearly, if a story appears in the New York Times, it is of interest to more than just Trumpsters. It's also something that everyone can have an opinion about. If it were all Donetsk and Luhansk, weapons systems, COVID statistics, the Fed, and the bond market all the time, you'd get much less participation and much duller discussions.

hombre said...

The holy trinity of the left endorsed by the NYT, et al: sex, particularly aberrant sex; the state; the climate.

gilbar said...

not to pick nits (well, TO pit nits), but geometry Is a math so this Should have a math tag too

gilbar said...

seriously, though;
isn't this Just a case of a wife being upset because the husband prefers the new girlfriend?
And the wife is desperately TRYING to remain relevant ?

Not to worry wife! the husband will gladly keep you both (for NOW)

MadisonMan said...

Three men in a Queen-sized bed? What, are they all 5' nothing tall?

n.n said...

The classical order presents couple structures and "our Posterity". The politically congruent ("=") order includes couplets, triplets, crossovers, singularities, etc.

Jake said...

Is this from where Monkeypox comes?

YoungHegelian said...

So, this woman checks into a hotel and goes to her room. When she opens the door, she sees three bellboys having sex in the bed. She runs down to the front desk and says "I need to see the manager immediately!" to the man at the front desk. The man at the front desk says "I'm the manager, ma'am. What seems to be the problem?"

"Well, I don't quite know how to say this, but there were three of your bellboys having sex in the bed in my room!"

"Was one guy blond, about 6 ft, light skin?"

"Yes."

"And was the next guy black hair, 5 ft 10, tanned?"

'Yes."

"And was the guy on the left 6 ft 2, brown hair, and hairy?"

"Yes!"

"Damn! That lucky Pierre! Always in the middle!"

Rollo said...

One topic that came up in the gay marriage and civil unions debates was that people who weren't sexually involved would form civil unions to continue receiving benefits after one partner died. You can see legalized plural marriage as another way to that end, particularly with the childless. Material concerns play a role in family arrangements, as they did with
Mormon polygamy or with young women marrying aged Civil War veterans for their pensions.

Krumhorn said...

"Damn! That lucky Pierre! Always in the middle!"

I'm pretty sure it was Howard. Or possibly, the dog was Howard. Dunno. Hard to tell them apart.

- Krumhorn

MadTownGuy said...

Mr Wibble said...

"Remember when th seconds predicted that gay marriage would lead to attempts to normalize polygamy? Pepperidge Farms remembers."

Probably won't happen. The impetus for normalizing L & G marriage, as well as the push for Trans lifestyles, is limiting reproduction, that is, population control. Bisexuals are on the list but are barely tolerated, and polygamists are seen as 'breeders.'

PM said...

Turned over? What...the Chihuahua's table wine?

Bunkypotatohead said...

That's one way to afford the rent on a NY apartment.

cassandra lite said...

"Not really a fan of sex before tooth-brushing.

Same, same, same. That's why there isn't a single time in filmed entertainment when I see a couple waking up in bed and immediately kissing that I don't think, "Come on, morning breath."

But in hundreds of depictions, I've never seen any character indicate in any way that their loved one's mouth doesn't smell like roses. My theory is that filmmakers believe, probably with cause, that if you show a character with bad breath, even temporary morning breath, the audience will keep that perception of him/her for the rest of the movie/series.

JAORE said...

No body knows the thruples I've seen. No body knows but Jesus..... Uh-oh.

gpm said...


Lycusn(in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum): Consider the Gemini: a matched pair. Look at them, gentlemen. Either one a divinely assembled woman, together, an infinite number of mathematical possibilities.

--gpm

Tina Trent said...

At least they don't own a Great Dane.