Who Has Affairs - And Why
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Why it helps to know about the prevalence of affairs:
For the person who knows their spouse has had an affair and is still trying to understand why, acknowledging the prevalence of affairs in our society can help them put it in a more realistic perspective. Understanding just how many others face the same situation (regardless of who they are or who they're married to) can help break the sense of being so alone, isolated, or "singled out" for this experience. It can help overcome the feeling of "why me?"
People who have not yet faced this issue, either in their own lives or with their friends or family, would do well to start with a realistic picture of the frequency of affairs in society as a whole. It's not that the sheer frequency means it will happen to any specific person, but it does say a lot about the kind of support to expect from society for remaining monogamous vs. having affairs. We need to make a commitment to face the reality of affairs and address the issue in a more responsible way, both individually and as a society.
Bottom Line: Most of us expect monogamy to be a normal part of marriage or any committed relationship. The reality is that monogamy is not the norm.
4. Is Monogamy "Natural?"
People often get caught up in a debate over whether people are naturally monogamous or naturally have affairs. That's a useless debate, as was clearly expressed by Jessie Bernard in her classic work, The Future of Marriage:
"Millions of words have been used to document both the naturalness and the unnaturalness of monogamy. The question...is, actually, unanswerable. We will never know if there is anything intrinsic in human nature that limits the ways the sexes can relate to one another because no one has ever survived outside of any culture long enough to teach us. Human nature seems to be able to take almost any form of marriage—or unable to take any form."
We can only understand monogamy and affairs in a societal context, in terms of the attitudes of society as a whole. Normally, when we try to understand why affairs happen we look only at the reasons why a person might want to have an affair, such as the excitement of sexual variety. But this doesn't explain why affairs happen. People may want to have affairs for a wide range of reasons, but their decision to act on those desires is affected by the values and actions of those around them.
Affairs happen in so many marriages that it's unreasonable to think they're due solely to factors within each marriage. Whatever the personal factors involved in affairs, they are more than outweighed by the significant, powerful, and pervasive societal factors. We have a responsibility to learn more about our role, individually and as a whole, in supporting the societal factors that contribute to affairs.
Bottom Line: Debating the "naturalness" or "unnaturalness" of monogamy is a way of avoiding dealing directly with this issue. Regardless of whether or not it's "natural," it's happening; so starting from there, there is much to learn.
5. How Can Affairs be Prevented?
Prevention is possible only through a commitment to Honesty, not a "promise" to be monogamous.
Definition of Honesty: not withholding relevant information.
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