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• Sunday, December 17, 2006 06:30 PM

  Why do we do this?

  I was going to say, why do women put up with men who have double standards for appropriate sexual behavior, who throw tantrums and use guilt trips and passive-aggression when they don't get their way, who are clearly broken, know they're broken, and blame the women in their lives for fucking them up.

  But then I thought about my coworker. She's going to L.A. (from Boston) this weekend. A "friend" of hers has bought the plane tickets, paid for two hotel rooms, and is giving her $1500 to go shopping on Wiltshire Boulevard. She told me on Friday that he'd better not expect anything like sex from her. I asked her, for all that money, what the hell is he getting? She smiled and tossed her hair and said, "The pleasure of my company. Duh." I fail to understand what the appeal is. She's vain, shallow, inarticulate and self-obsessed, and yet some poor bastard is so desperate for companionship that he's willing to pay for hers. Why do they do that?

  Anyway. LW, please lose this idiot as quickly as possible. If he won't move out, find a new place and don't leave a forwarding address. He doesn't sound psychotic or dangerous - merely infantile and hung up about sex - but he's got some serious issues and is unwilling to do anything about it. He'd prefer to make you suffer for some imaginary "sin". Six months of this ridiculous behavior is five months too many. Don't give him another chance. Don't listen to his promises. Don't let him make you feel guilty for one more second. Just leave. Leave now. Leave tonight.

  And Cary, good for you for not suggesting there was anything to salvage here.

  —Zahra
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