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Notes -
Heard a friend of a friend describing how her girlfriend had a string of tempestuous relationships with guys that involved emotional turmoil and hot sex ("like, against the wall") in equal measure. Now the girlfriend is getting married to a guy who she says makes her happy all the time but the highs are not as high - she rationalizes this by saying that she's not settling, it's the highs with Chad only seemed high because the lows were so low. Myself, I'm not so sure - I guess I can only hope that her fiance doesn't know Chad made her feel. Bros, I don't feel so good...
Do men not have the same thing?
Men also have that borderline girlfriend, you know, the one that's an artist, where the sex was hot af but the relationship was otherwise tumultuous and they had to stop seeing them because they kept getting fall down intoxicated in public while out by themselves. Eventually they "settle" for the girl who doesn't have the mental illness and drug abuse issues but it's true they don't like to dirtytalk as much.
I guess presumably some men have the same thing but still - feeling that your wife is a step down from an ex in terms of raw attraction, and then telling people about it, seems pretty depressing. My male friends haven't told me that they feel this way, at least.
This is just a difference in the way status works in same-sex groups between men and women. As is often said, women like complaining without advice more than men do, because masculinity has more emphasis on agency. A man who complains that he settled is low status even if he’s only voicing how many men feel, a woman who does is sharing in a kind of same-gender camaraderie.
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