The Ethics of Infidelity

Nope, this is nonsense.

You've set this up as a contract question and then:

(a) Defined one implied term (monogamy); (b) Rejected another implied term (sex).

As a professional lawyer, I call "foul"!

The only way I can even slightly rescue your analogy is to say that implied term (b) is a continuum, whereas implied term (a) is digital, making monogamy far easier to identify. They are both however clearly implied terms.

The reality is that people go into committed monogamous relationships expecting their "reasonable sexual needs" to be met.

The difficulty is identifying what "reasonable" is here - hundreds of millions of dollars are paid yearly to lawyers like me to advise, in various different contexts, what "reasonable" means in the circumstances.

Based on your analogy of contract law, lawyers could almost be dispensed with! Yes, I know, I know - some would say that is a good thing!

I'd also like to point out that the "Mono" in monogamy means "one" - not zero, which is not monogamy, it is celibacy. In other words, if you want to play word games then a person completely withdrawing sex is themselves breaking "monogamy" by reducing "one" to "zero" rather than the cheater who increases "one" to "many"!

/r/DeadBedrooms Thread Parent