by Brett Blumenthal
This morning, as my husband Dave and I were driving to work, we heard a radio commercial for an internet company that promised consumers, none other, than an affair. No…honestly. Ashleymadison.com is a website that is much like ‘Match.com’ or ‘eHarmony.com’, except for married people. The title of this blog: ‘Life is Short. Have an Affair.’, is their trademarked slogan. Just one of many. Here are a couple of more:”100% Affair Guarantee,” “An Affair to Remember,” and my favorite, “catering to men and women who are currently in relationships but are looking for more.”
WHHHAAATTTT???? Seriously? What the heck has this world come to? We are now publicizing affairs as a business; as ‘okay.’ This ‘business’ claims that they have over 2 million members. I have an extremely hard time believing this statistic, but who knows? Maybe there really are over 2 million people who actually want to pay for an affair and formalize the search process through an online dating service!
Look, by no means am I judging people who have an affair (or am I?), but it seems to be the lowest possible thing you can do: actively search out an affair. Affairs happen. I’m not in support of them. I think they are wrong. I think that they are awful to the person who is being cheated on. I think it is a horrendous show of disrespect to a spouse. BUT, if one were ever to have an affair, you would HOPE it was an accident. Something not planned. Something that just grew out of time and unhappiness; and NOT because you were actively seeking out a relationship with another person while you were married.
If you actually want to sign up for a service that sells and guarantees you ‘an affair,’ don’t you think that you KNOW something is wrong in your relationship? Don’t you think you should want to make a change with your marriage? Maybe you might even want to consider a divorce? G_d. How absolutely sickening.
Anyone? Does ANYONE have an opinion on this one?
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7 responses so far ↓
1 Reed // Nov 12, 2008 at 8:29 am
I would hope that most of the people signing up for this service are in more “open relationships” and getting a kick out of pretending that they’re actually having an affair. But I guess that’s probably not the case. At least they’re matching themselves up with others of their ilk, right?
2 Juandy Liem // Nov 12, 2008 at 9:24 am
Honestly I’m totally surprised to know that such service exists and it is being so exposed and got into radio commercials ???
I can’t believe it, I totally agree with you that Affair is wrong, and what could be worse than “Actively Seeking An Affair?”
I suggest to those who’s already subscribed to such service to go and find help to fix their marriages and waste no more money on such disgusting service…
3 Flo // Nov 12, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’m not going to step in affair debate. However, I am sad to say that the US I grew up in resembles in no way the US I see now. An example would be the fascination people have in following live police chases (with or without viewing of actual shootings). That people find this fascinating is one thing I just don’t get, but I am truly shocked that tv channels actually compete and feed on these types of programs to get more viewers.
I now live on the old continent and, frankly, these programs who feed on live violence, just like vultures, are seen as totally out of place. Promoting violence, fear of others, and most importantly making unhealthy voyeurism to be acceptable.
While I can only encourage freedom of expression, I find it quite dangerous that mass media can show just about anything with no guidelines as to what is acceptable in a normal society.
The ads promoting affairs are just another example of this. How far will it go ?
4 Tory // Nov 12, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I find it extremely hard to believe that 1% of all American adults are signed up on a website that advocates having an affair. This is the first I’ve heard of this service. What a bizarre and silly service!
5 Robin // Nov 13, 2008 at 9:57 am
We live in a world today where just about anything at all is okay, or simply a reflection of freedom of speech no matter how offending, or unprincipled it may be to another. This is just another small reflection of today’s view. Really is anything shocking anymore?
6 Cyrus // Nov 13, 2008 at 11:06 am
You should be aware that, predictably, google is placing ads for AshleyMadison on your blog!
7 Brett // Nov 13, 2008 at 11:11 am
Cyrus…I know…I unfortunately don’t have control over that…I’m working on it for the future though…ironic, though, isn’t it?
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