Floored!!

I turned on the Tivo today to see what was cookin’ and discovered an Oprah show from Friday that I hadn’t yet watched. It was titled “Swingin’ in the Suburbs.” I had no idea what I was getting into until I hit Play.

The show was about married women who cheat (apparently 17% of married women have cheated; 28% will cheat — that’s as opposed to the 50%+ of men who will cheat.) There was a familiar refrain from the women — “My husband didn’t seem to love or appreciate me, so I cheated…” It seems about half of them ended the marriage and half of them didn’t. Regardless of whether the marriage was still ongoing, everyone was pretty miserable (which echoes my recent experience.)

The other half of the show was devoted to couples who “swing” (voluntarily have sex with other couples.) This is the one thing that just floors me every time I hear about it. Why the heck do you marry someone only to go out and have sex with other people?! Swingers say it enhances their sex life. Oh, bullshit. If your sex life needs enhancement, you have more problems than going out and fucking other people will solve. I just don’t get this “answer” to that problem.

Statistically speaking, if I get married in the next 2 years, it only has a 55% chance of success. On average, a first marriage lasts only 8 years. This is completely and totally depressing.

Will it stop me from getting married in the future? No… but it will force me to take a long, hard look before I do. I don’t want to be involved in any facet of this hell in my future, and I especially wouldn’t want to be the person who was cheated on. And “swinging” as a solution to cheating/relationship problems? Blech.