Hyperfamily
Hyperfamily: (noun) A group of people, not necessarily genetically or legally related, who have made a deliberate choice to come together for the purpose of providing mutual economic, emotional, and practical support.
The Hypertwins are so-named because they, um, I mean we, are like twins but in a hyperfamily rather than a regular (or unleaded) family, since we're not legally or biologically related.
Articles
- The Hyperfamily Idea: explains in much more detail
- Hyperfamily Declaration of Interdependence: sort of a half-serious draft/prototype mission statement for hyperfamilies to use
Related Concepts
- Intentional community (Wikipedia)
- Polyamory is similar, but the emphasis is different; Hyperfamily focuses on the functioning of the group, while polyamory is more about the relationships; a hyperfamily can include polyamory, though it doesn't have to (depending on the latter's definition, anyway)
Notes
2002-11-30 email excerpt
From an article in the NY Times Magazine (2002/11/24 p.58) about "The Sims" virtual people computer game and the online culture thereof, in which one activity involves writing stories about one's simulated characters:
"Interestingly, the stories generally don't seem to regard marriage as the happily-ever-after ideal. Instead, cliques are the key to paradise. In story after story, the happy denouement comes when the main character settles into her new home, furnishes it to her taste and then invites 5 or 10 people over, and they surround her with companionship and celebrate her triumphs."
It then goes on to note: "If you came of age before, say, 1985, then your social life probably followed the 1950s pattern: you had a group of friends and also a relationship with your special boyfriend or girlfriend that was understood to be higher and more intense than that with the rest of the gang. [ ... ] But for many American young people, the friendship relationship is more important than the sexual relationship. ... People go out in groups, rather than on one-on-one dates."
(The author seems to be at least somewhat accenting some supposed ambiguity in this newer arrangement as being a bad thing, but it's a given that folks familiar with an old way will often see the negative side of a new thing and be blind to the positive aspects, even if they may seem blindingly positive to others of us...)