June 5, 2013

I love my husband of 20 years, but our sexual differences are putting a strain on our marriage. Ten years ago, he asked me to talk dirty to him about having sex with other men. It has progressed to him wanting to be a cuckold. I only want to be with him, but he presses the issue by verbalizing cuckold situations during sex. This makes me close my eyes and shut down. By the time he is done, I have no desire to orgasm because I no longer feel attractive. Worse, I feel like I am not enough for him. The only way he can get off is to talk about, think about, or hear me talk about having sex with other men. It makes me feel worthless as a sex partner—which is crazy, because I am attractive and open to a great deal of things (toys, games, dressing up, striptease, etc.). I long for him to touch me, kiss me, and look at me the way he used to. He is a good father and a good provider, and I love him. But this matter is crushing my self-esteem. I won’t stay much longer if this continues.
Extremely Frustrated Female Experiencing Despair

Your husband was probably reading cuckolding blogs for years before he worked up the nerve to raise the subject, EFFED, and here’s what he’s gleaned: Husband brings it up, wife shoots it down, husband whines, wife agrees to explore it as fantasy only, and then one day—after months or years of dirty talk—wife announces she wants to give it a try. She winds up loving it, she says she regrets waiting so long, and husband lives happily ever after in cuckolded bliss. Reading so many cuckolding success stories—many likely fictitious—has left your husband convinced that if he just keeps at it, one day his wife will want to try it. (Some wives do try it and like it. I got a letter from a woman who’s angry that her husband—after years of dirty talk and a half-dozen cuckolding experiences—has decided that it isn’t for him after all. He doesn’t want her sleeping with other men; she doesn’t want to go back to sleeping with just him. Dr. Cuckenstein created a monster.)

Tell your husband in no uncertain terms that you don’t want to hear about cuckolding anymore. Period. He is free to think about whatever he wants to during sex—we all are—but he has to keep his cuckolding fantasies to himself. Wrap up the convo by informing him that from now on, your sex sessions end the moment the subject of you sleeping with other men is raised. No more closing your eyes and waiting for him to finish. (And what kind of asshole can finish under those circumstances?) If he brings up other men, EFFED, get off the bed, get out of the bedroom, and go to the kitchen and have some ice cream. Your husband needs to find a new erotic script that works for you both. The incentive for him: Since you are open to many things—toys, games, dressing up, striptease—a fantasy scenario that turns you on is likely to become a reality scenario pretty quickly.

Finally, EFFED, cuckolds don’t see their wives as unattractive. Cuckolds see their wives as so desirable—and so insatiable—that they’re incapable of giving their wives all of the sexual attention they deserve. But I can see why you’re upset. You want sex to be about the two of you, about the intimacy you share (or used to share), and your inconsiderate husband is always running his mouth about people who aren’t in the room. It’s understandable that you would feel like you’re not enough for him after 10 years of this bullshit. But your husband’s cuckolding fantasies don’t mean he finds you unattractive—they mean the exact opposite.

I haven’t encountered any glassy-eyed straight guys wandering around my gay neighborhood offering to suck cock, so I’m thinking these videos are ineffective. They sound like a harmless way for an otherwise healthy, stable straight guy to fantasize about ceding his power and privilege to people the culture taught him to regard as weak and inferior, i.e., women and fags. That said, MWAH, it doesn’t sound like you’re an otherwise healthy, stable straight guy. You’re confused about your sexual orientation and gender identity, and you’re working on those issues with a shrink. That being the case, MWAH, I think you might wanna avoid these videos for the time being.

Sexual infidelity is one thing—and it’s a relatively common thing (so people should go into marriage prepared to work through it)—but we’re not talking about one thing here. We’re talking about a whole series of betrayals. Your husband betrayed you sexually and financially. He stole from you. He stole from his own children.

Now, I can understand thinking with your dick (because I have a dick), and we can all imagine a circumstance in which we might succumb to temptation (because we all experience temptation). But I cannot even begin to wrap my head around how someone could spend his own children’s college fund—in addition to his family’s savings (and taking on debt!)—on gifts, trips, and meals for his piece-of-shit on the side. (Not all “other women” are pieces of shit, but anyone who would allow her married lover to spend that kind of money on her in eight months is a flaming piece of shit.)

DTMFA.

It’s advice, H, not binding arbitration. You are free to make up your own mind. And while I couldn’t see staying if I were in your shoes, I could see myself meeting with a marriage counselor a few times before pulling the plug—for the sake of the kids.

Dan’s new book—American Savage: Insights, Slights, And Fights On Faith, Sex, Love, And Politics—is available now.

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