Soulmatch
Moreover, what wife is misguided enough to allow her husband to read Playboy?
Recently, we've seen the Kobe Bryant sex scandal and the publication of Hillary Clinton's memoir, which regurgitated the Monica Lewinsky story. I believe that these and other incidents are warnings to wives not to be naïve about the dangerous effects pornography-and opportunities for adultery-can have on a marriage. And they must do something about it. While Hillary bore her husband's betrayal with dignity, there is the legitimate question of whether she should have been keeping a far more watchful eye on her husband whose roving ways were well known, especially when he told her that he was spending time with an intern for the purpose of "guiding her life." Shouldn't an alarm have gone off in her head?
The idea of wives "policing" their husbands, of calling men to account for their behavior, might sound antiquated or petty, but I believe it is valid and, indeed, essential. When I've asked wives how they feel about their husbands looking at pornographic material, I've heard an astonishing range of answers. There are those who are quick to assert how "cool" they are with it and even claim to join in the viewing; and there are those who are utterly horrified but feel they have no right to object to their husband's adult behavior. But women must wake up to the fact that they do have a right to nip this behavior in the bud.
Pornography is destructive not only because it is insulting to one's wife, but because it takes one's erotic focus away from one's spouse. In this respect, the principal harm it inflicts is not radically different from adultery. When infidelity occurs, it destroys the marriage not only by causing hurt and humiliation, but by starving the marriage of attention, affection, and effort. The hurt that a husband causes his wife by being unfaithful is not, in itself, the deal-breaker in their marriage. The wives whom I have counseled through a husband's infidelity are prepared to forgive him if they love him. The real deal-breaker is the fact that the wife is no longer the focal point of his sexual and romantic energies. When husbands and wives are not wholly focused on one another as the means of finding erotic excitement, they begin to drift apart. Initially, men believe that a little peek at another woman's nudity is a harmless means of generating some excitement and certainly nothing as significant as an actual act of infidelity. But these "harmless" leers are the first symptoms of neglect.
