pplwatching
Full grown man
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2003
- Posts
- 2,370
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like marriage vows go both ways, and a promise to 'love' someone until death do you part INCLUDES physical intimacy.
I wholeheartedly agree that each spouse shares equal responsibility for the sexual portion of the marriage, which is very important. It's not just you.
If the arrangement is going to be 'let's be good friends, buy property together, and you can pay my taxes and all the utility bills for the next sixty years," well, that's a perfectly respectable arrangement, but I think BOTH parties should be aware of that going in. Otherwise, SOMEONE is getting ripped off.
If one spouse has this expectation and the other does not, then they may be wise to consider if they're really married other than on paper. If both agree to a marriage of convenience, then there's no reason to divorce if both are willing to accept extramarital sexual outlets.
I think a lot of guys have no idea that the intimacy well is gonna dry up pretty damn quick, but that THEIR obligations under the vows really will last until they're DEAD.
That is one way to view a marriage, and an unfortunately common one. People become complacent. Marriage is hard work, and part of that work is striving to maintain emotional and sexual intimacy.
Another way to look at it is that marriage is a commitment to always strive to meet your spouses needs, including sexual.
And if your wife has made it pretty clear that what she REALLY cares about is not YOU, but the comfort and stability that you provide, then why is it so wrong to continue providing that for her, even though she provides little or nothing in return?
If a spouse makes it clear that (s)he has no interest in your sexuality, then the other spouse has a choice to make. They can either provide for those needs at the expense of your their with her, or leave. For me, I would leave that arrangement and seek out a marriage with someone who wants emotional, sexual, and physical security with me. It would still be important to me to hear in her own words that she doesn't want to meet my sexual needs. I believe that in my case, if I were to go outside of my marriage for sexual intimacy that emotional intimacy would follow and my marriage would suffer a disastrous end anyway. Either way, she would deserve to know if I chose to go outside of the marriage for sex.
Fortunately, my wife has never even hinted that this might be true. Every time that I've made a deliberate effort to work on our marriage, so has she. I am fortunate.

