The Cheated Cheat

...s me. The problem? She’s going to be leaving soon for a job in a new area. Part of me wants to go with her, but it would mean leaving my child. I should also mention that this temptress has gotten herself into trouble in the past. No arrests, but there’s a chance of past misdeeds or unstable old boyfriends coming back to haunt her. I don’t want my child hating me forever, but I also want to be happy. What should I do? Wondering If Love/Lust Is Enough !--hi!--!--hi!--As the daughter of swingers, I used to be appalled by married people having sex with others. But my marriage has sent me running for the dark side. The problem is I am not running there with my husband: After having children, he unilaterally ended our sex life. And I am not a cow: I have even improved my body after the babies. I have written letters explaining what I need and worn thongs. I have even told him that I cannot imagine being married to him forever if it’s going to be like this. He response? “We have children now.” I feel cheated, and like many people who feel cheated, I cheated. I know it’s wrong, but I was dying to fuck someone who actually wanted to fuck me. I am certain I will end up getting busted (at least my parents were honest about fucking other people!), but I am having the best sex of my life and don’t want to give it up. On the other hand, my husband is a great guy and a great father. Can I dump an otherwise good man and break up my family just to pursue a life of debauchery? If so, how do I do this without making everyone hate me? Full Swing WILLIE and FS’s letters arrived on the same day. I wish I could say that there was something unusual about that. I get letters every damn day from frustrated, desperate men and women who are married to people who are no longer—or were never—interested in sex. Sadly, most people in WILLIE and FS’s shoes only write to me after they’ve spent years enduring, begging, pleading, and cajoling. They write in after they’re married, after they’ve had kids, after they’ve started affairs—in short, they write when it’s too damn late. Still, I have some advice for WILLIE and FS, and we’ll get to it in a moment. But first, some general observations—and let’s get the obvious ones out the way first: Isn’t it a shame that WILLIE and FS aren’t married to each other? And isn’t it too bad that WILLIE’s wife and FS’s husband aren’t a happily sexless couple? And now, the bank-shot observation: In some instances there may be mitigating circumstances, i.e., there may be a very good reason why a particular husband or wife is no longer interested in sex. For all we know WILLIE doesn’t bathe or only speaks civilly to his wife when he wants sex. For all we know FS supports the teaching of intelligent design or is Katherine Harris. But it’s not always the fault of the cut-off spouse. There are people out there who simply aren’t interested in sex and, judging from the mail, a whole lot of them married people who are. It needs to be said that depriving a spouse of sex—or subjecting them to absolutely joyless sex in the hope that they’ll stop asking—is an act of emotional violence. And this brand of emotional violence not only creates frustration, anger, and desperation, it inevitably leads to infidelity, which all too often leads to divorce, broken homes, and traumatized children. And who gets the blame? The spouse who cheated, of course! Didja hear? WILLIE—a man with a wife and a child!—ran off with another woman! Oh, and FS—a woman with a husband and kids!—was sleeping with another man! To all those folks out there who aren’t interested in sex: Getting married—or civilly united or shacking up—is like buying a cow. You know going in that you’re going to have to milk the thing. But unlike an unmilked cow, a spouse—male or female—won’t just stand there in a field and suffer. A spouse is a cow with a credit card, a job, and a car. If you don’t milk the cow you married, your cow has the means to go out and find someone who will. If you’re fine with that, for God’s sake tell your cow. If you lose interest in sex but want to stay married for the kids, friendship, or financial security, apologize to your cow and tell ’em you’ll do them the courtesy of turning a blind eye if they’ll do you the courtesy of being milked discreetly elsewhere. Okay, so what should you two do? WILLIE: If you’re going to leave your wife—and in your blowjobless state, who could blame you (besides everyone)—the least you can do for your kid is stay in town. This other woman—the one with the bad taste in ex-boyfriends—isn’t the only other woman on earth. Leave your wife, get your dick sucked locally. FS: Tell your husband what’s going on and tell him why. Offer to stay with him and raise your kids together, if you can hack it. But just as he’s made it clear that being with him means no sex, you need to make it clear that being with you means semi-regular cuckolding. I’m a gay 22-year-old male, and my boyfriend is 24 and seems to have the lowest sex drive ever. He never initiates and he pushes me away three out of the four times I do. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t initiate anymore. He’s a great guy—sweet and perfect for me in every way except this. Cheating is not an option I would consider. However, I’m sex starved over here! Boy Once Needed Erotics Daily Once upon a time cheating was not an option WILLIE or FS would have considered either, BONED. Get out while the getting out is good. ASKING & TELLING: Advice poured in for In Love Yet Afraid, the gay soldier who wanted to know what to do about his crush on a fellow soldier. Read what soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines had to say to ILYA by going to www.thestranger.com/savage/youasked. HEY, STRANGER READERS: I write “Savage Love” once a week. But I write every damn day on SLOG, The Stranger’s blog. Go to www.thestranger.com, and click on SLOG. mail@savagelove.net