
Originally Posted by
Crabbergirl
Second if you commit to a monogamous relationship- and especially if you have taken marriage vows to "FORSAKE ALL OTHERS" this also means printed and film media. If this person is not happy with the mate viewing porn then that is her right to press the issue. With all due respect handyman you sound like you may have a skeleton in your closet you are defending.
I have to disagree with you.
I'm married, and have no problem with my husband viewing porn, nor does he have a problem with me looking at pics of hunks in my girlie magazines. I also don't have a problem reading my girlie magazines to look at the pictures of the models, and he doesn't have a problem with me reading romance novels (which are at LEAST as unrealistic about sex and love as porn is).
What you vow in your marriage is between you, your partner, and your god. Period.
The people who are IN the marriage are the people who DEFINE the marriage.
Same thing with relationships.
Look--it comes down to this: when you get into a relationship, you need to define YOUR boundaries. The other person needs to define THEIR boundaries. Then you work on compromising. What you define as cheating, someone else could define as flirting. What they define as cheating may be nothing but intercourse.
The PROBLEM is that most couples don't have this conversation. Like... ever. It just becomes one of those understood things between the two of you that gets defined from a series of comments, suggestions, conversations, etc, that you've had over time, and then we hear back from all these people that think their significant other is cheating when their significant other doesn't SEE it as cheating because it was never DEFINED as cheating.
You're right that if she isn't happy about porn viewing, she has the right to press the issue. However--if it wasn't talked about EVER before this came up, HE also has the right to tell her she's crazy and that porn is nothing more than a quick release that means nothing. THEN the fight starts.
PD--what are you supposed to say to that? You're supposed to say "I guess we should have defined boundaries before this. Let's work TOGETHER to define what's acceptable and what isn't as far as viewing porn and how far flirting with others can go and reading romance novels and all that other stuff so that we can both find a middle ground on this"
If you're asking him to give up porn, though, when it's not affecting your sex life, then you'd better be prepared to give up romance novels, or Sex in the City, or Disney movies, or some OTHER unrealistic portrayal of love and romance--that would be only fair.
Since you haven't defined your limits BEFORE this (and I can't believe that you're married, and had to have been in a relationship BEFFORE getting married, and you never, ever once talked about porn and your feelings on it), you're probably going to need a marriage counselor to work through it together. Your husband has every right to be annoyed with the fact that you're changing definitions (since there WAS no definition before) without consulting him on it, and has every right to be angry that you want him to give up something you hate that to him isn't an issue, especially since you aren't giving up anythign yourself here.