site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 12, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

6
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

This is a not-exact diagram of what my relationship with my wife looks like*. So I can give you a rough number here: over a decade or so of this practice, the answer is roughly 1.5 other women per year on average, median and mode 1, some years zero. I often joke with the handful of people who are aware of our open status that people perceive an open relationship as the defining aspect of people's lives, I probably spend more time playing Golf in the average year than with other women, and I don't even like Golf I just get dragged into it socially/professionally every now and then. So the answer to this question:

How many men will put in the effort in this situation? Maybe they will get a mistress/sugar baby. Maybe they'll join a sex club. How many will actually trawl Tinder and bars?

Is, maybe every now and then, but probably more like once or twice a year than all the time. It's not a question of overall frequency within the year, that rounds to zero, so much as a period of treating it like a hobby for a time, then forgetting about it. I'll get an itch, much less like being uncontrollably horny than the same desire I would get to read a particular genre of book, and I spend a week or so finding a partner, then take a weekend day off and have some fun, then maintain that once a month for a while, then quietly let it drop when other things get in the way. Normally I keep chatting with other partners for some time, often but not always meeting up again at some point months years down the road if they reach out to me or I to them.

So on balance, one would not dedicate a lot of effort to it.

*The main differences would be that we don't have kids (yet, inshallah) and she is also interested in...interactions...with other women on her own or with me; while I am congenitally incapable of sex without any feelings getting involved.