Ménage à trois

Ménage à trois is the French term describing a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household.

Term

The French phrase ménage (household), à (of), trois (three) literally translates as "household of three." Simply put, a ménage à trois is a romantic relationship in which three people live together and have sexual relations^[1].

A living arrangement comprising three people in a sexual relationship. Alternatively, a sexual liaison between such a group of people^[2].

Examples

An example would be Emma Hamilton, her husband, and Horatio Nelson. Other examples are Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the Duke of Devonshire, and Lady Elizabeth Foster; and Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett his wife, Amy Gwen Wilson, and writer Gilbert Cannan.

At Sweden in 1775, Count Adolf Fredrik Munck af Fulkila had reputedly been hired by king Gustaf III to assist him in the consummation of his marriage with Queen Sophie Magdalena. He was to act as sexual instructor for the couple. His "aid" is alleged to have resulted in the birth of the future King Gustaf IV Adolf in 1778. By further rumors, he was the lover of the king as well as of the queen. These rumors eventually had serious political implications in the end of the House of Vasa's rule in Sweden.

Sometimes the term is also used to describe any sex act involving three people, otherwise known as a threesome.

In fiction

The ménage à trois is a recurring theme in fiction and has been the subject of a number of books, plays, films and songs. Some notable examples include:

Design for Living (1933), a play written by Noel Coward and then adapted as a movie directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
In "Les Diaboliques" (1955), a film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, the husband is led on by his wife and mistress to believe that he will have a sexual encounter with both of them.
Jules et Jim by Henri-Pierre Roché, adapted and filmed in 1961 by François Truffaut.
David Crosby's song about ménage à trois, "Triad" (1968).
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
Paint Your Wagon (1969) — in the film version, Ben marries Elizabeth, but she falls in love with Partner. They decide that if a Mormon man can have two wives, then a wife can have two husbands.
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), directed by John Schlesinger, a movie about a threesome with a homosexual man, a heterosexual woman, and a bisexual man.
Summer Lovers (1982), a film with Peter Gallagher and Daryl Hannah, in which a vacation in Greece leads to a female-male-female relationship that is both emotional and sexual.
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976), adapted from Jorge Amado's novel of the same name, tells of a woman who lives simultaneously with her second husband and the ghost of her first.
Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon (1982) relates the relationship of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot as a ménage à trois.
Also The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay ends with Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere - at the end of numerous adventures - departing on a ship, the three of them happily holding hands, embracing and looking forward to a shared future.
The Garden of Eden, a novel by Ernest Hemingway, written between 1946 and 1961, and published in 1986, centers on an American expatriate couple who bring another woman into their marriage.
A Home At The End Of The World by Michael Cunningham centers for the most part on a ménage à trois.
Three of Hearts (1993), directed by Yurek Bogayevicz.
The Switch is an episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry Seinfeld attempts to end a relationship with one roommate, and start one with another, using a suggestion by George Costanza.
The Label Maker is an episode of Seinfeld in which George Costanza attempts to terminate a relationship by suggesting a ménage à trois, to have it blow up in his face.
In the beginning of A Very Brady Sequel, Marcia and Jan are walking home from the last day of school reading each other's yearbook messages. Marcia reads one to Jan that says "ménage à trois". Marcia replies saying "I bet that means 'you're the most'". This joke becomes a recurring gag throughout the course of the film between Marcia, Jan, and her fictitious boyfriend, George Glass.
In Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Frex admits that he and his wife loved a itinerant glass-blower named Turtle-Heart "equally," implying Melena's long-running affair became a threesome.
Kiss the Sky (1999). Aging married friends try to form a threesome while building an island retirement refuge. Though they fail, they learn to accept their situation with the help of a Buddhist monk.
Y tu mamá también (2001), a somewhat controversial Mexican coming-of-age movie that focuses heavily on the sexual lives of the three characters, played by Maribel Verdú, Diego Luna, and Gael García Bernal. Features mixed jealousy, hedonism, and repressed bisexuality as major themes.
Politics, a novel about a ménage à trois ("the socialist utopia of sex").
In Bandits (2001), a ménage à trois is a major part of the plot.
The Dreamers, a film starring Eva Green, shows a beautiful and functional ménage à trois with a very unfortunate end.
In the film Shortbus (2006), James and Jamie meet a young ex-model and aspiring singer named Ceth and the three begin a sexual relationship.
The 2004 film Head in the Clouds, starring Penélope Cruz, Charlize Theron, and Stuart Townsend, tells the story of these three characters' sexual and romantic relationship with each other.
The 2008 Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona depicts a dysfunctional, sometimes violent relationship between two Spanish artists (played by Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz) that is finally brought in to balance with the addition of Cristina (Scarlett Johansson).
The 2008 film The Duchess, based on the biography by Amanda Foreman of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.
Science fiction writer Bob Shaw, in The Two-Timers (1968), gave the theme a new twist in having a Ménage à trois in which the husband and the lover are two versions of the same man, from two alternate time lines.
The Asylum Seeker, a 2003 novel by Arnon Grunberg, has a ménage à trois involving a disillusioned man, a terminally ill woman, and an asylum seeker.
Quartet (1928), originally titled Postures, a roman à clef by Jean Rhys in which she fictionalised her affair with Ford Madox Ford.

After Collin tries to make an attempt to get involved in a polygamist/three-way relationship with Andrea and Joey so that Collin would not be in conflict with Joey about which boy would win Andrea`s affections but later gets in trouble with the school`s guidance counselors/child studies team after the school nurse told them and the counselors tell Collin how inappropriate it is for school and that some people felt really uncomfortable with Collin`s suggestion. Collin would also fantasized about having group sex/threesome sex with Andrea and Joey.

Ménage à trois

Term

Examples

In fiction

See also

References

Further reading