Infidelity

Infidelity, the act of cheating on your partner or loved one with another individual. Is this wrong? In the majority of cases I would have to say that it is. However as with all these issues there is no concrete answer and situations where it is understandable but not permissable might arise.

The classic scenario where one partner gets lured by the excitement of the secrecy and the cloak and dagger of an illicit relationship is condemnable. If the person's own relationship is unforfilling and they are bound to it by religion or children then an extra marital affair might be a welcome release and would be more acceptable to me personally providing you don't mix the two.

There are some that have a tolerance for extra marital affairs within an open relationship and provided they follow this activity with people that have a similar views then I have no problem with such an arrangement.

I suppose I do not have an ethical dilemma with the act of having an affair but the deception that is always involved with such an operation. From the deception stems guilt and then blame. Often it is not the act itself that causes the most hurt it is the thought that the person has been lying for an extended amount of time.

People seek to justify infidelity by resorting to the 'caveman' approach about men not wanting to be tied down to a relationship and being naturally more prone to seek out others and society seems to go along with this reasoning. Its more expected for men to have affairs than women, especially long married men. If a woman is caught then she is socially ridiculed and looked down upon by others. It is an unequal aspect of our culture that has remained from the Victorian age.