This letter is associated with the following article:
Letters
Monday, December 18, 2006 12:00 AM

My boyfriend freaked out because I had a threesome

It happened before we were together, but he can't handle it and he's being a real jerk.

Read other letters about this article

  • Monday, December 18, 2006 08:55 PM

    own your choices

    Assuming he hasn't done the same things and isn't being a hypocrite, this boyfriend has *every right* to be upset about this. If the LW's sexual mores differ significantly from his, it doesn't make him a self-righteous inhibited prig to realize someone he thought was compatible with him in this regard, isn't. But he should have been a man, stood up, acknowledged this as a deal-breaker, and dumped her, so that both parties could go out and find more compatible partners.

    Someone who sleeps around has no right to be picky about the sexual past of partners, and no woman should tolerate hypocritical judgments from a man who has himself been sexually promiscuous prior to their relationship. But everyone also has to acknowledge that other people are going to judge them for their pasts, and if those people haven't slept around, it's their prerogative to do so. My attitudes toward sex sound similar to the boyfriend's - I assign a sort of secular sacredness to it and haven't slept around in my life (I'm 27, with three partners to date). I have zero interest in dating a woman who's slept around, and it has nothing to do with some patriarchal concept of ownership. It's about compatability - it's exactly the same as not wanting to date a fundamentalist Christian or an Ayn Rand idealizer or a Communist for me. I consider sexual/emotional values a large part of compatibility. I suppose some women would think me sexually backward or judgmental or whatever for my stance and refuse to date me because of it, but since I'm likely to have no interest in those women in any case, so what? Virgins can marry other virgins, and sluts can marry other sluts. Everybody's happy.

Most Active Letters Threads

685

Obama's exceedingly familiar justifications for escalation

The "new" approach to Afghanistan touted by White House officials seems quite old
581

The commendably missing element from Obama's speech

There was no pretense that human rights is our goal, or the likely outcome, in escalating the war
543

The crazy, irrational beliefs of Muslims

Tom Friedman explains the real problem: stupid Muslims think the U.S. is about war and aggression.
440

The face of rotted Washington

Evan Bayh demands more debt-financed war - fought by others - while boasting that he's a stern "deficit hawk."
310

Yes, it's Obama's war now

An uninspiring speech sells a dubious policy, but progressives who feel betrayed have only themselves to blame

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon