Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Been thinking...

The other day somebody stumbled across a contract dating website...and I had to explain what it was.

I've often found myself in the position of having to explain some variety of human sexuality to those who haven't yet stumbled across it. This includes, for example, informing people that no real animals are involved in pony play (or puppy or kitten play).

Human sexuality is very powerful and it comes in all sorts of varieties. "Contract dating," for example, is a term currently used for what used to be called sugar daddy/sugar baby relationships. An older, wealthy man (who may or may not be currently married) enters into a relationship with a young, attractive woman, in which he gets the pleasure of her company and she gets to share in his lifestyle. (In some cases these relationships may lead to legal marriage. In most cases, however, the younger woman is a mistress).

The thing about every variety of human sexuality is that it offends somebody. Those who believe marriage should be life and people should be 100% loyal will be offended by contract dating, as will those who are against any form of prostitution (technically, there's no difference between contract dating and hiring an escort long term).

But, I know plenty of feminists who are upset by the "traditional" male breadwinner/female homemaker marriage.

So, who are any of us to judge other people's arrangements? Ours probably upset somebody, somewhere on the planet.