I've seen a few items of pop psychology lately, attempting to explain infidelity, in both women and men. The typical male view of infidelity takes something like the Elizabeth Hurley/Hugh Grant thing from a while back now, and says, "well, sometimes you don't want steak every night, sometimes you just want a hamburger." Women, so it is said, are more frequently responding to what they see as a finite number of good men, which to my mind makes even less sense than the decidedly more carnal male take on the subject. I mean, if a woman sleeps with a married man because at some level she sees him as a "good man," ie; he has a good job, makes good money and takes care of business, the fact remains, whatever the two of them do is still WRONG! Ergo, the man has compromised himself, and the woman has compromised both herself AND him! And yes, I realize that a) this whole line of thinking cuts both ways, and, b) I'm probably standing on my soapbox screaming into nothing, but there it is, my take on the whole subject, for what it's worth. (strains of Buffalo Springfield in the background.....)
As a final word, if there are any guys reading this, fellas, if you're "good," by whatever standard, particularly if you're married, and another woman comes at you, wanting you to compromise yourself by sleeping with her, (she, of course, will not SAY SO, in so many words,) it's a trap. Don't fall into it because you were thinking with the wrong head. And some, at this juncture, will probably accuse me of being a self-righteous b^&tard, to which I say, if you wanna see me that way, go right ahead, because I obviously can't change your mind. Others may wonder why I'm pondering the subject at all. Well, first of all, no, I don't have a guilty conscience, but suffice to say there are some to whom my rationale IS known, and I shall go no further. My final word is to simply say that infidelity, whether you see it this way or not, is never just about you, it does have a ripple effect. I wish some days that other people thought more, and I didn't think quite as much. The curse of living in my own mind.