ElanSubdued
Posts: 1511
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LadyPact, I am the S...; feel the S... flowing through me; come with me and we'll rule the galaxy together! Oh. Darn. That slipped out. Blame Pixel. Lord Pixel *obviously* gave me tainted popcorn! It's coincidental you ask this question because LadyHibiscus and I had a similar discussion last night. To me, it comes down to the following. (Please excuse my rather blunt language - possibly a remnant of Pixel's popcorn :-). If your partner decides to fuck someone else, they will. Period. By "fuck", I mean connect emotionally, engage in play, have intercourse, have a casual encounter, whatever. Nothing you can do will stop this. You can place rules around them. You can read their email. You can limit their communication with others. And you know what? If they're not committed to you, they'll find a way to get what they want anyway. I find the entire notion of controlling a partner so that they won't stray, whether in the vanilla world or the BDSM world, entirely ridiculous. And I'll underline something else. I'm not the staying type, but I will re-evaluate whether I wish to remain in a relationship. One thing that would cause such a "re-evaluation" is a partner who attempts to control my communication with others. Why? Because this is an indication they don't trust me. I don't believe it's possible to build and maintain a relationship without trust. I've not addressed the scenario you posed in the OP. Truly though, I don't think sexual orientations and BDSM leanings have much impact on your question. People are attracted to other people for a variety of reasons. When you're in a relationship, you don't stop noticing others who are attractive to you in addition to your partner. (Add an "s" to partner, please, for those who are polyamorous.) The question is whether one acts on this or not. For myself, I've always chosen not to act because I value my partner, the relationship I have with my partner, and my sense of honesty and loyalty in far greater proportion to flings (which I don't value at all). In other words, no matter how hard they tried, someone couldn't "poach" me. Still, I'll repeat again, if someone decides to stray or is prone to straying, it's likely they will, no matter how many walls you build around them. The question for the other partner (then) is do they want to be in a relationship with this kind of person? It's my opinion that the energy used to build containment walls is misguided and wasted, and is perhaps far better used deciding to accept the straying partner as-is or to end the relationship and find a more compatible partner. I had a partner who cheated on me. She owned up to it, we talked about it and understood why it happened, and we both, at the time, decided to stay in the relationship. At any rate, I don't want to derail your thread so I'll leave this discussion here. May the Force be with You. Always. Elan.
< Message edited by ElanSubdued -- 7/18/2008 11:30:15 AM >
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