Yup, you read that right. Recently I read this exact question posted on an online advice columnist: “My husband asked me for a threesome, is this grounds for divorce?”
Unfortunately this is how many people think. They are so afraid of their significant others fantasies that they immediately jump to the most extreme response possible.
If I was answering this question I’d of said: “No, his asking isn’t grounds for divorce, but your reaction to his expressing himself is grounds for him to divorce you.”
Harsh? Maybe. But this isn’t even really about threesomes. It’s about a lack of honest and open communication in a relationship, which is the number one issue that eventually leads to anger and resentment and divorce.
This is all due to the lack of a safe and secure atmosphere within the relationship that a person’s feelings and fantasies can be revealed. All too often doing so triggers insecurity and jealousy and the ensuing anger, hurt and the defense mechanism, belittling, that they get from their partner. Things nobody wants to experience. So it’s safer to just not say anything at all. Eventually the resentment builds and they strike-out on their own, either through divorce or cheating, to fulfill their fantasies and live their life. The life their significant other is too jealous to live with them, or even listen to.
We hear this all the time, especially from married men that contact us through swinger dating sites we belong to (that might just be because men so actively seek sex, especially through swingers sites). It’s always the same old story: “I love my wife, but she is just too prudish, reserved, doesn’t like sex, doesn’t like the same kind of sex I do” etc., etc., etc. And one of the most read topics on The Swingers Board is the “How do I talk to my spouse about swinging” threads. Taken a step further, that could be: “How do I talk to my spouse about any sexual fantasy I have without having them reject me and make me feel stupid for having them.”
It’s always amazed me how people will be more open with complete strangers about their darkest sexual secrets then they will be (can be?) with their spouse, the one person they should be able to talk to about anything.
Being secure enough in yourself to not be threatened by your partner’s sexual fantasies is a paramount of a sexually happy and satisfying relationship. Being open to hearing your partner’s fantasies without judgment or jealousy doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do those things, it just means you have to validate them and not make them feel that they can’t talk with you about them.
Again, lack of communication (and the willingness of someone else to listen) is the biggest cause of cheating and the resulting emotional trauma associated with it when the cheated spouse finds out.
But, until people can get over themselves, this will continue to be a huge issue with romantic relationships.
~ Lucius Scribbens
I am on one today. I’m on MySpace and there all all these “Sponsored Links” for finding someone to cheat on your significant other with. Every once in a while this kind of stuff gets me going. The way general society treats cheating as “normal” but having a relationship where you are honest with your significant other and you’re sexually open, emotionally open, or both as “abnormal”.