Saturday’s Big Idea
Today's Big Idea: Marriage 3.0
Why do so many people struggle with monogamous relationships? It's just not in our nature to have one partner for life argues Christopher Ryan, author of Sex at Dawn.
And yet we continue to demand monogamy in most all relationships. Sex columnist Dan Savage, however, says it is a mark of immaturity that relationships are destroyed by one slip-up. After all, we're human and we fail. “We need to talk about monogamy the way we talk about sobriety," he says. "You can be monogamous and fall off the wagon and then sober back up."
What do married couples value the most? While most people don't sign up for a life of celibacy when they get married, according to Ashley Madison founder Noel Biderman, sex is important, but it is certainly not at the top of the list.
Biderman, whose site allows married people to meet and have discreet affairs, tells Big Think that through an affair, or "through a liaison, and even to some degree through the use of pornography and other things," Biderman argues, married people can find "these cathartic outlets that allow them to stay within that marriage and be that great partner, parent or however they see themselves."
