12 December 2011

It's Just Cheating

Cheating, it is a touchy subject that every relationship has to deal with in one of many ways. Gays tend to have the odds against them and have tried to deal with it as best we can. There are open relationships, forgiven constant infidelity, or rules set in place so that if someone is unfaithful there is a realm in which forgiveness must be granted.

Infidelity is typically discussed at some point in any relationship to let both parties know that they have gotten to the point of exclusivity. What defines cheating is how we define being exclusive. Some think of sex as a non essential in a relationship, some will say, “define the sex and you define the relationship” while others say it is all about how you look at sex. There is also the cop out of saying, you make love to your partner and have sex with everyone else.

I am not here to tell you what is or is not cheating just to tell you that cheating is not always about sex. And you would be shocked at how people can cheat.

Cheating, as the majority sees it, occurs when ever a person who is involved with another person emotionally and physically and has agreed that they share an exclusive bond. Then that person goes to another person for something that is supposed to be filled exclusively by that exclusive bond. I know how Webster of me.

According to this definition flirting, kissing, dirty dancing, romantic gifts, sex in all forms, and deep emotional conversations can be construed as cheating if they are part of you exclusive bond. However the only two people that can determine which are exclusive and which are not are the parties involved.

Sometimes a relationship is strictly emotional and the act of having sex with other partners does not infringe upon that, if said sex remains emotionless and animalistic. Typically cheating hits home on almost all levels weather you are gay or straight, when emotions are involved.  Sex is just sex, a kiss is just a kiss, and dancing is just dancing. How do you know when it is more, the unfortunate part is the only person who ever really knows is the person doing the cheating and sometimes the person they are cheating with.

Emotional cheating is the reality of knowing it was honestly a onetime thing, but in your heart and mind you allow it to repeat with the hope that it could happen again. Your heart races when you think about their touch and you smile when you think about how the act made you feel. Not to say if this defines cheating but when things get emotional that is when they typically get dangerous.

As odd as it may seem, at some point your partner and you need to talk this all out so that there are no surprises. And even still while sex may be the hard defined line of cheating in most relationships and others may be included, those that are not defined as line crossing may fall into a grey area and that is when you have to define what is unacceptable for you to do.

Cheating can also happen on a personal level, many of us set boundaries for ourselves. We make personal promises and swear we will never do such and such in hopes that it will prevent an unpleasant situation.  I think this is the best way to prevent cheating. If you cheat in a relationship and things end, the blame can be interpreted in many ways, but if you go out of the personal boundaries you set for yourself then you have no one to blame except you. So think about you and the man of your dreams. What would you say is ok for him to do, then apply that to yourself? Think about it, if you prepare yourself to treat him as you want to be treated then the ground rules are already set and cheating will really be cheating. No grey area to be interpreted.

No comments:

Post a Comment