Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
We tell teens/young adults that mastrabation is a normal healthy exploration of your own body. But men are socialized to believe that mastrabation after marriage is a failure to "get it from your wife" and women are socialized to believe they need to "give it to their husbands" instead of enjoying it alone. Men make women feel like they "cheated" if they mastrabate once a week and have sex with their H once a week. The H want that 2nd time too, as if the woman is not allowed to enjoy herself without her H anymore.
Masturbation isn't the same as sex. A lot of women seem to think a man's desire for sex is just a desire for orgasm. But it's more than that. My wife's body isn't some sort of overly-complicated masturbation aid. It's a way I can feel that she loves me. When she's rejecting my initiations, we have sex once a month or less, and she's masturbating in the interim --
you bet I feel rejected and unloved. It means she wants sexual activity, just not with me. I know it's more complicated than that (after all I just said that masturbation isn't the same as sex), but that doesn't change the feeling of rejection and being unloved.
Even more so because I check all the boxes that supposedly lead to love (and, by extension I irrationally assume, sex). I've been loyal and faithful for the 20 years of our marriage. I'm a good, active dad. I do plenty around the house. I bring home a good income. I'm in good shape. I'm funny (and modest!). I treat her with kindness and respect. I enjoy foreplay and enjoy sex much more if she's having orgasms. I'd be up for just about any sexual twist, kink, or fantasy if she had one and would tell me. I'm not perfect, but I'm pretty good. And our marriage is pretty good. But the sex is pretty much gone, and it sucks.