You have to wonder if every time their sophisticated post-modern sex lives don’t live up to the “if it feels good, do it” ideal or they can't overcome that whole icky morality thing, The Daily Beast’s authors are driven to rationalize it in prose. It is, after all the website that brought you “If Sexting is so Wrong, Why Does It Feel So Good? [1]” And now comes the latest bizarre ethical self-justification: Cheating might just prove the secret ingredient for true love!
The site’s Keli Goff recently pondered probed, “What Turns a Love Affair Into a Relationship That Actually Lasts?” [2] In this context of course, “love affair” refers to the sneaky, wreck-your-life and break-everybody’s-heart type of assignation. (What other kind is worth writing about to contemporary liberals?)
“Common wisdom has long held that if you romance a cheater he or she will one day cheat on you. But what if that common wisdom is not true?” (Key words: common wisdom.)
With that, Goff began explored, “what makes the difference between a couple that starts as an affair and lasts, and one that doesn’t” and discussed “the main ingredient for those striving to turn an unhealthy affair into a healthy long-term relationship.”
Although King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s historic affair ended with a beheading, “some of the world’s most admired couples came together under what some may not consider admirable circumstances,” Goff commented. She cited couples like Prince Charles and Camilla, Rudy and Judi Giuliani, Newt and Callista Gingrich as well as Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward to exemplify controversial relationships “that are all still going strong.”
Her experts, relationship specialist Rachel Sussman, author of The Breakup Bible, and Dr. Gail Saltz, associate professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornel School of Medicine, failed to express the same optimism. Sussman advised cheaters, “a big problem affair couples have is they tend to be jealous and suspicious of each other because they know that person is capable of cheating,” while Saltz agreed, “It’s not as hard to cheat a second time once you’ve cheated a first time.”
But never mind. If it doesn’t work out you can rationalize the failure on The Daily Beast.
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter. [3]