It seems that you can’t read an online newspaper without running into a new story regarding cheating housewives. What gives? The truth is that this demographic has never gone away. For the longest time, a certain percentage of married Americans cheat on their spouses. Of course, for the longest time, much of the media attention has been focused on the guys. It’s not uncommon. Why is this the case? As guys get older and closer to middle age there is an increasing temptation to cheat. A lot of American men have actually turned this into a ritual. They get married in their 20s and by the time they get into their 30s, they are onto their second wives. Their wives get younger and younger as they get richer and richer.
Well, the good news is two can play that game. Thanks to the rise of women’s rights, women are increasingly demanding equality. One of the latest battlegrounds regarding that equality of course is marital fidelity. You have to remember that cheating housewives often cheat because their husbands are already cheating. In other cases, both parties have agreed to an open marriage meaning the man can have sex with whoever he wants, the woman can have sex with whoever she wants. As long as both agree to keep it clean and not bring any diseases home, then everything is wide open. Regardless of the particular ground rules that they’ve established, cheating house wives have garnered the attention of the media. Here are just some of the reasons why.
The modern realities of American fidelity
For the longest time fidelity has been defined in American culture as simply until death do us part. This is not just a legal fiction that is going to persist until the end of the natural lives of the partners involved, this is also involves an emotional commitment. The emotional component is supposedly durable and persists all through life. The problem is that in America choice is a very big cultural value. Choice is huge. You don’t really have freedom, according to common imagination, unless you have a wide range of choices.
You can choose who to call yourself, what your gender is, what you want in life. In other words, freedom is defined by how much choice you have. As American society progresses, choice keeps getting elevated in the pantheon of social virtues and values. Not surprisingly, fidelity has to give way because what’s the point of having choice when you can’t have sex with the person that you’re attracted to. At least this is the thinking of some people. This may be the minority, but it’s definitely seeping into the mainstream and it is causing some turbulence. This is an unavoidable fact of American fidelity and it is being redefined.
Increasingly, more and more couples are staying together despite the fact that at least one of the partners is having sex on the side. Many couples are beginning to divorce emotional fidelity from legal or commitment fidelity. The most interesting about this trend is that these American couples are not staying together because of the kids. They’re not staying together because of social appearances. They actually love each other, but they feel that their love has evolved to such a high degree that they can separate the sexual component and still feel faithful to each other.
A multicultural approach to values
Just as the multiculturalism in the United States enable cultures to co-exist despite some differences, this has been extended to all aspects of the human experience. This has been extended to sexual practices and values. For the longest time, if you cheat on your spouse you are automatically viewed by the larger culture as somebody who is untrustworthy and morally flawed. This has changed. The name of the game is tolerance and being non-judgmental. According to conventional wisdom, it’s really nobody’s business that you choose to have sex on the side. Nobody can judge you. This is growing and increasingly more and more people are being comfortable with it.
The twin factors outlined above are the reasons why the whole phenomenon of cheating housewives is gaining ground. We’re not just talking about sensational news stories. We’re talking about news stories that actually have a favorable slant. There is definitely a brave new world as far as America’s sexual mores and customs are concerned.