Gift To Boyfriend

My husband is a very kinky submissive man. When we were dating, I found out that he had been talking to multiple people online and that he had met up with a professional dom a couple of times. I felt betrayed that he had done this all behind my back, even though I had told him that I would be down with him seeing a dom. (I even offered to buy him a session for his birthday!)

We got through it, and now our sex life is amazing. I tie him up, I lock his dick up, I dress him up. All I ask in return is that he be honest with me about who he's talking with online. Is that unreasonable? I know he chats with "women" online as a "woman," and I'm okay with that so long as I'm made aware of it. But today I found pictures on his phone of his cock in the chastity device I keep him in. He tried to lie but he came clean: He was chatting with a woman, it came out that he was a man, and she wanted to see pictures of his cock in his chastity belt.

Why lie? Honest to God, if he would have just told me the day he sent the pictures that he sent someone pictures of his cock, I would be okay with it! I also found another e-mail account he never told me about that he's using when he chats online as a woman. Again, no big deal! But I was under the impression that he used just this one chat program for chatting! Why hide it? My vanilla friends will be no help in this matter, and I feel pretty heartbroken. So I'm asking you.

He Isn't Telling Me Everything

Before I can respond to your question, HITME, I've gotta sacrifice a goat to the snooping-is-always-wrong Gods, or the snooping-is-always-wrong jihadists will cut my head off. It'll just take a sec: Snooping is always wrong! You invaded your husband's privacy! That was wrong! WRONG!

Moving on...

Your husband hit the jackpot when he met you, HITME. There aren't a lot of women out there who would embrace—much less marry—a man with his particular collection of kinks. You've been GGG and all you've asked in return is... total transparency and the immediate, real-time disclosure of all outside flirtations and contacts as they happen. Why can't the kinky ingrate honor this agreement? Only he knows the answer to that question, HITME, but I suspect one of two issues is at play...

Your husband may be ashamed—he may have been brutally shamed in past relationships—about the extent of his kinks and about just how much of his time and erotic energy his kinks consume. You may be completely sincere when you tell him you're okay with everything, HITME, so long as there's immediate and full disclosure. But he may fear that sharing the full extent of his online activities will leave you feeling either squicked out or threatened. So he downplays and minimizes, disclosing some but not all, because he doesn't want to lose you. If this is the issue, impress upon your husband that hiding shit from you represents a bigger threat to his marriage than full disclosure ever could.

Or...

Having and keeping sexual secrets may turn your husband on, HITME, and having a secret life could be another one of his kinks. Even if this is the issue, HITME, I think you two should be able to come to mutually agreeable terms that accommodate both his desire to have a secret and your need for full disclosure.

Here's a potential compromise: He doesn't keep anything from you, HITME, but he doesn't disclose in real time. So long as he's not being unsafe or neglectful, so long as his online activities remain online-only, he can carry on flirting and texting and pic swapping. But every few months, you get to depose his submissive ass. You get to sit him down and ask him questions, and he answers all your questions truthfully and opens up about any current secrets that your questions didn't uncover. This way, he can have all the erotic secrets he wants (he'll just have to make new ones every few months), and you can have the transparency you need (you just won't have it immediately). Good luck.

I'm a 29-year-old gay guy who's not sure where to find what I'm looking for. I'm turned on by the idea of a dominant guy, but most of the guys I attract are pure vanilla. When I look online at the fetish-friendly dating sites, most of the dom guys say shit like "If you have a list of things you will and won't do, you're not a sub." I want to give up control, but I don't want to be some guy's "bitch." Can there be dominance without degradation? Is a boyfriend who's an equal in life but in charge in the bedroom a unicorn? Where do I look?

Needs Include Controlling Empathy

The dominant boyfriend you're looking for is out there somewhere, NICE, you just need to keep looking. And remember: Sometimes, dominant boyfriends are made, not born. By which I mean: Don't rule out the vanilla boys you attract. A guy who likes you is gonna want to meet your needs, sexual and otherwise. If you give a vanilla boy a chance, and if you're honest about what turns you on, you may find that you awaken something in one of those vanilla guys that was there all along—a little dominant streak—but would've lain dormant if it weren't for you.

And you were right to run from those dominant tops who insisted that "true subs" don't have preferences, limits, or lists, NICE. Not even submissive guys who are into degradation and being someone's "bitch" should fall for—or submit to—that kind of crap.

Your question last week from the guy who "stumbled over" his brother's femdom sex blog reminded me of a funny story: My little brother came out to my conservative-but-not-particularly-religious Jewish parents in 1995. It was rough. Our parents refused to help pay for my wedding because I insisted on inviting my brother and his boyfriend. Mom and Dad are now rightly embarrassed by their behavior and they worship his husband. (It helps that my brother married a doctor—some stereotypes are true.)

Last year, my parents found out that my older brother—their straight son—is kinky. A vindictive ex hacked into his e-mail and sent a letter to everyone in his address book. Big bro has a dungeon, his current girlfriend is his slave, he's made BDSM porn. The e-mail came with pictures no mother would want to see. Mom, completely distraught, called her gay son: "Why can't Josh have a normal relationship!" she cried. "Like yours!"

So far as Mom is concerned, her gay son is normal and her straight son is a freak. Is that progress, Dan?

Brothers Done Shocking Mom

I don't know if it's progress, BDSM, but it's hilarious. And I trust that you're sticking up for your kinky straight brother now just like you stuck up for your gay brother back in the day.

Be sure to listen to me interrogate Ira Glass on the Savage Lovecast this week—when he's allowed to make fart jokes, he's a whole new man: thestranger.com/savage.

mail@savagelove.net

@fakedansavage on Twitter

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Have boyfriend. Several months. Love sex. First time we sixty-nine, I notice he has a little turtlehead sticking out. You get me? Second time, he has bits of toilet paper stuck in that area. CAN I ADDRESS THIS? And how do I do it without giving him a permanently flaccid penis? I love this man to pieces and know this is a humiliating topic. Please help!

Mired In The Mud

Got you. Wish didn't. But did.

If you don't have the nerve to speak up when someone is grinding shitbuds and dingleberries in the vicinity of your nostrils, MITM, I'm not sure there's anything I can say that's gonna help. But for what it's worth...

YES, YOU ADDRESS IT! IMMEDIATELY!

When someone pushes your face into a dirty asscrack—or allows you to place your face in the general vicinity of a dirty asscrack—you say something along the lines of "What the fuck, dude, go take a dump and jump in the shower! Christ!" His ego, to say nothing of his future erections, should be your least concern at a moment like that. So you say it without hesitation, without concern for his feelings, and you say it as you leap out of bed and reach for your shirt, pants, car keys, and phone. You don't just lie there pretending that his buttrasta isn't dangling over your nose. Even if he's never able to get another erection with you, MITM, he'll know to spot-check for cleanliness—are there no washcloths in Gilead?—before he crawls on top of anyone else.

I'm a 23-year-old gay guy. I've been talking to a nice guy who will possibly become my first boyfriend. The little quibble I'm having is... I'm a virgin. It's not that big a deal to me—it just hasn't happened yet—but I was wondering if I should mention it to this guy. He made an aside about virginity (unprompted by me) during one of our chats: "No, I'm not a virgin, that's nothing that you should worry about with me." That was probably my opportunity to tell him, but I didn't. Should I have told him? What if I tell him during sex? Could that make it hot?

Thank you for what you do. I found the courage to come out because of you.

Ready And Willing

If you found the courage to come out to family and friends about being gay—which you found inside yourself, RAW, but thanks for the nice compliment—you can come out to this boy about being a virgin.

Don't tell him during sex, RAW, and don't tell him in a way that makes this relevant information about your sexual history—you don't have one—seem like a character flaw, a cancer diagnosis, or a request for an open marriage six years after you began an adulterous affair with a congressional staffer. You're just a 23-year-old virgin, RAW, there's nothing wrong with you; it's not like you're one of Elizabeth Santorum's idiotic gay friends or a cast member of The A-List: Dallas. The next time you see this boy, initiate a casual, low-stakes, getting-to-know-you make-out session at a time when you can't transition to full-on, no-holes-barred gay sex. Relax, kiss the boy, be chill. Then pause and inform him that you're not very sexually experienced—in fact, you've never been with anyone. Reassure him that you're not a duckling—you're not going to imprint on the first dick you see—but that you wanted him to know.

How are you supposed to react to the discovery—entirely accidental—that your youngest brother has a "femdom" relationship with his wife? I stumbled over my brother's "anonymous" sex blog. It goes into detail about the "domestic discipline" she subjects him to: humiliation, spanking, "ruined orgasms" (whatever that is!), cuckolding. There are no names, but there are pictures. Their faces are blurred out, but I recognize their living room, their bedroom, the necklace my sister-in-law wears, my brother's chin and hair. If I recognized them, other family members might. What do I say?

Biggest Big Bro

Besides "Hey, bro, I'm kinky, too!"? (You "stumbled over" your brother's kinky sex blog? How'd that happen? Did he leave it sitting in your driveway?) If you can't bring yourself to say that, BBB, you say nothing and trust that more-distant, less-kinky family members are unlikely to "stumble over" your brother's anonymous femdom blog anytime soon. And even if they do, they're probably not familiar enough with your brother and sister-in-law's home, jewelry, chins, etc., to recognize him.

Congrats, Dan. It looks like you've got your first high-profile "monogamish" public figure: Newt Gingrich. You must be so proud.

Savage Can't Understand Monogamy

For anyone who spent last week under a rock: Newt Gingrich, brave defender of traditional marriage, was still married to his second wife—and still fucking the consecrated host out of his "devout Catholic" mistress—when he asked his second wife to agree to an open marriage. Newt had been fucking Callista, his devoutly Catholic mistress, for six years when he made the big ask. Newt's second wife wouldn't agree to an open marriage, according to Newt's second wife, which is how she became Newt's second ex-wife and Newt's mistress—the devoutly Catholic Callista—became Newt's third wife.

That's not monogamish, SCUM. That's CPOSish. And lumping honest nonmonogamists—people who don't lie or cheat—in with the likes of the Gingriches and Schwarzeneggers of the world, which whiny and insecure monogamists (who are not to be confused with reasonable and secure monogamists) are always doing, is simply unfair. Newt, like Arnold before him, didn't succeed at nonmonogamy, he failed at monogamy.

Zooming out for a moment: The Gingrich campaign has presented the holesome story of Newt and Callista's courtship as a redemption narrative: Newt is a better man today thanks to Callista, he's better suited to be president thanks to Callista, and he's better prepared to defend traditional marriage thanks to Callista. She's been described as a "devout Catholic" in every profile written about her—so devout that her love brought Newt to the one, holy, Catholic, apostolic, and ever-more-rabidly anti-gay church. So it seems to me that it's fair to ask if Callista knew in advance that Newt was proposing an open marriage to his then-wife and approved of the arrangement. (It might be more accurate to say that Newt informed his second wife that she was already in an open marriage and asked if she wanted to remain in it.) Did Callista know about Newt's open marriage proposal? Did Newt bounce the idea off his devoutly Catholic mistress first? Maybe right after he finished bouncing himself off his devoutly Catholic mistress?

Would the devout Catholic still be Newt's mistress today if the second Mrs. Gingrich had agreed to remain in the marriage that Newt had already opened?

This news alters the redemption narrative that the Gingrich camp set before the voters. So questioning Callista about the open marriage proposal—what did the mistress know and when did she know it?—seems like an entirely legit line of inquiry to me.

Callista Gingrich, like her vile husband, doesn't believe that gays and lesbians should be equal under the law because, as a good Catholic, she believes that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals should remain celibate. Well, the Catholic Church considers adultery, divorce, and birth control sinful, too. Someone in the liberal media really ought to ask Callista to explain why her faith should place limits on my sexual expression but not her own.

Find the Savage Lovecast (my weekly podcast) every Tuesday at thestranger.com/savage.

mail@savagelove.net

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Why do most people assume that all nonmonogamous relationships are destined to fail? Because we only hear about the ones that do. If a three-way or an affair was a factor in a divorce or breakup, we hear all about it. But we rarely hear from happy couples who aren't monogamous, because they don't want to be perceived as dangerous sex maniacs who are destined to divorce.

This state of affairs—couples who experimented with nonmonogamy and wound up divorced won't shut up; couples who experimented with nonmonogamy and are still together won't speak up—allows smug and insecure monogamists to run around insisting that there's no such thing as happy, stable monogamish couples.

"You know lots of couples who have had three-ways and flings who aren't divorced," I told the skeptics a few weeks ago, "you just don't know you know them." In an effort to introduce the skeptics to some happily monogamish couples, I invited coupled people who'd had successful flings, affairs, three-ways, and swinging experiences to write in and share their stories. The response was overwhelming—I may do a book—and I'm turning over the rest of this week's column to their stories.

My husband and I have issues like any couple, but I still smile when I see him walk into a room, and he still takes my hand when we're walking down the street. For the past seven years, we have been "monogamish." It started off with a discussion of "If you ever cheat on me and it's a one-time thing, I wouldn't want to know." Then, when he turned 40, we had a threesome with a female friend. When I actually saw him "in the moment," I didn't have the jealous feelings I had always feared. There is no question that our relationship is our first priority, but just the possibility of a little strange now and then makes him feel like a stud. (And I reap the benefits!) I don't much care for sex without emotion and affection, so my flings have been rather limited. We haven't told our families or more than a couple of friends. I don't want to deal with the judgment of others.

For the first five years of my marriage, everything was great: lots of sex, both GGG, lots of love. Then my wife's libido failed. Whatever the problem was, she couldn't articulate it. After a year where we'd had sex twice, I reached out to someone else. I used Craigslist and I was honest: I explained that I had no intention of leaving my wife and that I was looking for someone in a situation similar to mine. It took months to find the right person. We struck up a years-long affair. At the same time, I had a wonderful-yet-sexless marriage. Then, after nearly four years, a strange thing happened: My wife's libido came back strong. To this day, she cannot explain why it left or why it came back. With the reason for my affair gone, I ended things with my fuck buddy. And you know what? Years of honest talk made this easy. She understood; we went our separate ways.

So I had a four-year affair without getting caught. Here's how I pulled it off: I never told anyone about it ever, I chose a partner who wanted exactly what I wanted, we didn't film ourselves (as hot as that sounded), we used condoms, I kept my computer clear of any evidence, and we never called or texted each other.

My husband and I are monogamish but also LMGs—legally married gays. We feel tremendous pressure to be perfect. The thing is, we are perfect. We love each other, we support each other, and we have amazing sex with each other—and the occasional cameo performer, who is always treated with respect. (We have a rule about not inviting someone into our bedroom who we wouldn't be friends with outside the bedroom.) That said, the fact that Ron and Nancy down the street are swingers will raise eyebrows, but it won't impact the perceived legitimacy of mixed-gender marriage. But if Ed and Ted happen to invite a third into their bedroom, that would prove the gays are destroying marriage/the country/the fabric of the universe. Even other gays get judgmental. So, at least for now, our monogamishness is on a strictly need-to-know basis. And who needs to know? Just our sex-positive doctor and the occasional hot third who gets a golden ticket into our bedroom.

I agree with you that we rarely hear about successful marriages that are open. How do I know? I just discovered that my parents are swingers—and they have been married for 26 years!

My husband, almost exactly 10 years older than me, confessed a cuckold fetish to me shortly before our fifth anniversary. I said no, but a seed was planted: Whenever I would develop a crush on another man, it would occur to me that I could sleep with him if I wanted to. Five years later, my boyfriend of two years, who happens to be exactly 10 years younger than me, was one of the guests at our 10-year anniversary party. My boyfriend is a good-looking grad student who adores me and values my husband's advice about his education and career plans. He treats my husband with the perfect blend of affection and contempt. ("Gratitude and attitude," my boyfriend calls it.) I enjoy my boyfriend, but I love my husband more than ever. My husband is not allowed to have sex with other women (he doesn't want to, anyway), and he's not allowed to have sex with me without my boyfriend's permission (which he usually—though not always—gets). Our families would be appalled. We simply don't live in a part of the country, or move in social circles, where we could be honest about any of this with anyone.

From the outside, my husband and I look like a boring vanilla married couple. In fact, people have included me in judgmental conversations about open relationships. But the truth is, for nearly as long as we've been together (three-plus years), we've had a semiopen relationship. My husband is bi. When he told me after a few months of dating, years of Savage Love reading helped me to keep an open mind. Long story short: We worked out rules that were mutually agreeable. Now he can hook up safely with guys and come home to a loving wife with whom he can be completely honest.

I'm a happily married woman... and so is my girlfriend. Maybe it's cowardly of us, but no matter how simple our relationship seems to us, the people we care about would not understand. Yes, we do this with our husbands' blessing. (We even double-date from time to time!) No, there's nothing lacking in our marriages. Our parents, relatives, children, friends, and coworkers know we're close. But I don't see the need to tell anyone the entire truth. I was on the fence about sending this e-mail—that's how little fuss we make about it. Then I thought, if I do send it, and if enough people send their stories, maybe one day we can go public and it won't be a big fucking deal. That'd be awesome.

Find the Savage Lovecast (my weekly podcast) every Tuesday at thestranger.com/savage.

mail@savagelove.net@fakedansavage on Twitter

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I am a 25-year-old gay man. Although I have always accepted my homosexuality and never really felt bad about it, recently I have been going through a hard time psychologically because I'm exposing myself to very graphic homophobic online content. There are blogs, online groups, and websites that cater to gay men who like to be abused and degraded by "straight" men. Some people write extensively about how all gay rights should be rolled back.

I am very disturbed because I am actually aroused by content that shows supposedly straight men degrading gay men. I always come away feeling disturbed, insecure, and unhappy. But when I'm horny, I go right back. The worst feeling comes from knowing that a lot of those people don't seem to recognize it as just a fantasy, but instead believe in the homophobic views they express.

I was never disturbed by BDSM-type fantasies or BDSM porn, as it never seemed to be related to homophobia at all. But this type of dom/sub thing is very disturbing, as people don't seem to be "just playing" and it is playing with a real-world violent and powerful hate ideology. Is it okay for me to just view this as another harmless fantasy or is this something I need to control or get help dealing with? Secondly, are the people who contribute, participate in, and produce such gay-bashing sexualized content just indulging in a version of acceptable BDSM/kink or is it dangerous to use a prevalent hate ideology in sex play?

Not An Inferior Faggot

P.S. Examples of these websites: faggot4ever.tumblr.com, obeythestraightman.tumblr.com, and tribes.tribe.net/qssm.

You're not inferior, NAIF, and you're not alone.

In fact, you have lots of horny soul mates out there—think of strong feminist women with rape fantasies, think of faithful Jews with Nazi fetishes, think of empowered African Americans who get off on Master/slave role-play scenes. And think of all the gay men out there turned on by those vaguely threatening male archetypes. I mean, come on: All those cliché gay male sex symbols—truckers, skinheads, marines, cops, firemen, gangbangers—don't exactly represent the kinds of people or professions that have historically been associated with tolerance.

A person can safely explore degrading fantasies—even fantasies rooted in "hate ideology"—so long as he/she is capable of compartmentalizing this stuff. Basically, you have to build a firewall between your fantasies and your self-esteem. (And, just as importantly, between your fantasies and your politics.) Once you do that, NAIF, you'll be able to enjoy your "straight men abusing fags" fantasies without feeling devastated immediately after you come. In fact, successfully building that firewall and then enjoying your fantasies without shame can leave you feeling stronger and more empowered for having these fantasies in the first place. Call it the sub's paradox: A D/s sub who can enjoy his fantasies without being shredded by them is in control, not being controlled—regardless of how things might appear to a casual or misinformed observer.

But it doesn't sound like you've been able to build that firewall yet, NAIF, due to feelings of shame rooted in a perceived disconnect between the person you know yourself to be—a proud gay man—and the scenarios that make your dick hard. But there is no disconnect, NAIF. You don't really hate yourself any more than the feminist with rape fantasies really wants to be raped or the Jewish guy with Nazi fantasies really believes that Germans are the master race. (Could a people who routinely wear sandals with socks be the master race? No, they could not.) It might help if you reminded yourself of that before, during, and after you rub one out—it also might help if a sex-positive counselor reminded you of that during some regular sessions over a period of months.

You know what else might help? Finding a nice, out, proud gay man who gets off on this shit, too, NAIF, a guy who wants to explore these degradation fantasies with you in real time—safely, respectfully, and consensually. Cuddling after a hot, crazy, kinky D/s sex session with the "straight" guy who five minutes ago was "degrading" you for being a "worthless faggot"—and then getting dressed and going out to grab some fro-yo and chat about Glee—would go a long way toward helping you see your fantasies as something that brought intimacy, companionship, and connection into your life, instead of self-loathing and self-recrimination.

But don't start exploring your fantasies with a boyfriend until that firewall is well under construction, NAIF, okay?

Three months ago, I started a fuck-buddy relationship with an old friend. As we are both not seeking a serious romance, I thought it would be a good idea. My assumption was that the relationship was "open." But when I asked him how he'd feel about me dating another guy, he got defensive and said that if I fucked other guys, he would "never" sleep with me again. I asked him if he was sleeping with other girls, and he said no. I don't know whether to be happy (he likes me enough to be monogamous) or freaked (at his leotarded communication style). I do have feelings for him, and the sex is progressing from good to great. Any advice would be helpful.

Confused Canadian Chick

I would advise you to have a convo about upgrading your frequent-fucker cards from fuck-buds silver to boyfriend/girlfriend gold. The latter designation gets closer to the facts on the ground: You have feelings for him, he has feelings for you (however poorly articulated), the sex is great, the relationship is exclusive. You two may not have been seeking romance, CCC, but it looks like romance found you.

I'm a straight male in a committed live-in relationship. My girlfriend and I have sex once a week, usually on Saturday mornings. During the week, she is either too tired or too full after dinner. She often says she wants to have sex, but come 9:30 p.m., she's ready to get in bed and watch TV until she falls asleep. She asks me on a daily basis if I've masturbated in her absence. If I say no, she accuses me of lying. She has demanded to smell my hands to see if she can smell lube on them. I resent feeling interrogated and guilt-tripped over this. When I do masturbate, I always clean up after myself and I'm doing it before she gets home or after she's gone to bed. So, again, why the guilt?

Browbeating Okay, Meat Beating Another Story Totally

I don't know who's crazier, your controlling, psychotic, hand-sniffing girlfriend, BOMBAST, or you, for sticking around and putting up with this bullshit. There's nothing wrong with having a low libido; it's not a crime to want sex only once a week. But terrorizing a higher-libido partner about whether or not he is making ends meet by masturbating now and then—and demanding to smell his hands!—is borderline abusive behavior. DTMFA, BOMBAST, and be so kind as to pass this bit of advice on to your soon-to-be ex-girlfriend: If you want a companion animal you can castrate, lady, get a dog. Not a boyfriend, not a husband. A dog.

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My sexy GGG husband and I fuck a "good friend" semiregularly. He's hot, young, and game to fuck about every other week. We started out wearing condoms, but we've had the safe-sex conversation and our good friend isn't banging anyone else, so we've moved to condom-free sex. A month ago, we had a hot threesome. Our good friend fucked me, but came on my tits. My husband fucked me, too—that night, the day before, the day after. Now I find out I'm pregnant. I'm 99 percent sure that it's my husband's, but a tiny part of me worries. What are the chances that it's my sexy friend's child and not my husband's? Without our good friend coming inside me? And with all the semen left in me by my husband? Could our "other" sex partner's pre-come get me pregnant? Please tell me it's probably my husband's! I'm freaking out!

Pregnant In Threesome

It's probably your husband's, PIT, but...

Pre-come can contain "live, viable, pregnancy-inducing sperm," says Dr. Joel Maurer, assistant professor in OB/GYN and dean of admissions for the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. "Most [studies have found] that it contains very little, if any, sperm," says Dr. Maurer, but the possible presence of those live, viable, pregnancy-inducing sperm cells means it could be your good friend's child, not your husband's.

It's also why many—including Dr. Maurer—regard "pulling out" as an ineffective birth-control method.

"For every 100 women who use withdrawal correctly, four will become pregnant every year—this number jumps to 27 if not used correctly," says Dr. Maurer. (For every 100 women who use condoms correctly, two will become pregnant, 18 if they're using condoms incorrectly, which is why some argue that withdrawal is nearly as effective as condoms.)

Backing up: Pre-come is produced by the Cowper's gland and some other gland whose name I can never remember, PIT, while sperm cells are produced in the nuts. Sperm doesn't get mixed up in the seminal fluid—produced by the prostate and a couple of other glands whose names escape me—until the guy starts to ejaculate. So if your good friend didn't have an orgasm shortly before he fucked you and he didn't come inside you and there were no stray swimmers in his pre-come for some other reason, odds are slim that the baby is his. It's possible, PIT, but nowhere near probable.

"A paternity test after delivery of the child is the safest advice I can give should it remain an important issue to her and her husband," says Dr. Maurer. "An amniocentesis can make this 'diagnosis' before delivery, but the procedure comes with a small risk of pregnancy loss. As such, most doctors would consider it unethical to perform amniocentesis for the sole purpose of paternity testing without a coexisting medical reason."

To all the other nonmonogamous straight couples out there: Not using condoms with your other is fucking stupid. Using condoms with others is important not just to prevent disease but, if your other is a dude, to prevent paternity scares like the one PIT is having. And you should be using condoms with your other, male or female, regardless of safe-sex conversations or assurances that your other isn't banging anyone else. Unless your other lives in a cage in your basement—very hot, not very practical—you have no way of knowing for sure that your other doesn't have other others.

After an impromptu sex session that left me feeling sleepy and sappy, my partner, who typically feels sleepy and sappy herself after sex, texted someone! The fury that arose within me could not be contained! Neither the text message itself nor its recipient were the issue (it was to a coworker about a work matter), the issue was that she couldn't wait a few minutes to hug and kiss and say "that was hot" before sending a text?!? She thinks I'm overreacting and blames it on me being premenstrual. She has not apologized. How does she not get it? Isn't post-sex texting tacky?

Wasn't That Fucked?

Post-sex texting is tacky, WTF, and it's thoughtless. I can understand why you were annoyed. I can also understand why your girlfriend has refused to apologize. If one ill-timed text sent your panties so far up your crack that it unleashed a "fury that could not be contained"—if you raged at your girlfriend for being uncharacteristically inconsiderate (it sounds like she usually makes with the postcoital hugs, kisses, compliments, etc.)—then yours was the greater offense.

Don't get me wrong: Your girlfriend owes you an apology. But you owe her a bigger one, WTF, and yours should come first.

I'm a submissive gay man. All anal sex guides stress that when done right, anal sex should cause no pain. But what if I want pain? Over three years, my boyfriend and I have proceeded from having lots of anal foreplay to lube-it-up-and-stick-it-in. I love it, and once it stops hurting, as it always does after a while, I have amazing orgasms. So does he. There's a definite line between the arousing kind of pain and too much pain. But that line has moved closer to more intense pain, and I'm worried about injury. Then again, we're not sticking progressively bigger objects up my ass, just the same object with less foreplay. Is this risky?

Boy Used To Taking

It depends, BUTT.

You can enjoy lube-it-up-and-stick-it-in anal without incurring too great a risk of injury so long as your boyfriend isn't shoving his entire dick up your ass in one thrust. If he's pushing his dick in you gradually but firmly, giving your poor butt a chance to relax and adjust as he "forces" his way in, then you'll probably be okay. (Probably is the word of the day.)

That said, BUTT, while it's a fine thing to enjoy a little pain during sex—or "sensation play," as the kinksters have taken to calling it—making your asshole the focus of erotic pain isn't a sensational idea. Anal fissures and tears take forever to heal, and even a small one can put your ass out of commission for months. A big one can put your ass out of commission for years.

There are plenty of ways your boyfriend can make you hurt during anal without brutalizing your hole. He can slap your ass, yank on a pair of tit clamps, pull your hair, crank up the juice on an e-stim unit. You've got nerve endings all over your body, not just in and around your hole.

I'm a gay man in my 20s. While I love reading your advice for red-state kinksters, straight married folks, and lesbians with hymens, I'm wondering where the gay has gone. Can we get a column or two with an assortment of questions addressing the problems facing gay men in their 20s? Something for gay boys at that stage of life that falls between "it gets better" and "it gets domestic"?

Feeling Left Out

Happy to—hit me with some Qs, gay boys, and I'll dedicate a couple of columns to your issues and tissues.

Find the Savage Lovecast (my weekly podcast) every Tuesday at thestranger.com/savage.

mail@savagelove.net

@fakedansavage on Twitter

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I'm a man who recently started seeing a wonderful woman. Like me, she's divorced. While my ex-wife left me for another man, my girlfriend's ex-husband was controlling and abusive. Our relationship is the opposite—emotionally, psychologically, and sexually.

Here's the thing: His abusive behavior is my kink—spanking. In all my past relationships, spanking was light, playful, and consensual; with her ex, it was about pain and humiliation to the point of tears and bruising. She understands that my motivations around spanking are completely different from her ex's, but she has zero interest in anything approaching fetish play—and that's fine, because I feel so connected to her that I don't need my kink indulged to feel fulfilled. But I find myself feeling guilty for having the kink in the first place. The thought of her enduring what she did brings me to tears. How do I get past this?

Lacking A Clever Acronym

If your girlfriend's ex-husband had manipulated or bullied her into vaginal intercourse—if he had repeatedly and brutally raped her vaginally during their terrible, awful, no good, very bad marriage—would you feel guilty about an interest in consensual, vanilla, missionary, penis-in-vagina intercourse? No. You would hopefully have reacted in a similarly compassionate manner, LACA. You would have been willing to stick to oral, mutual masturbation, and whatever else your new girlfriend was comfortable exploring and capable of enjoying. And you would have looked forward to the day when she felt ready to enjoy sensuous, consensual, and mutually pleasurable vaginal intercourse again. And if that day never arrived, well, then perhaps you would have been willing to forgo vaginal intercourse for the rest of your life to be with her.

But you wouldn't be sitting there feeling like some sort of monster for being aroused by—and for having enjoyed—consensual, vanilla, missionary, penis-in-vagina intercourse with other women.

Your willingness to drop your harmless kink is evidence that your priorities are in order, LACA, your heart is in the right place, your cowboy hat is white, etc. Any time you start feeling bad about your kink, just remind yourself that consensual kink isn't abuse for the same reason consensual vaginal intercourse isn't rape: Because it's consensual. You can love this woman, LACA, and make this relatively small sacrifice for this woman (spanking ain't vaginal), without having to shame yourself or retroactively define all your past spanking experiences as abusive.

My boyfriend of five years had a one-night stand with a much younger woman. In some ways, it's a good thing—we're having conversations we should have had a long time ago, he's seeing a therapist to deal with his issues (his idea, not mine), and somehow I know more than ever that I want to be with him (I've always been the one in every relationship with one foot out the door). Two questions:

1. I've started to worry about looking older, and it's been devastating to know that not only did he cheat on me, but that he did so with a much younger woman. He assures me he's attracted to me, but how can I believe that now?

2. The younger woman sent me—and other people in our lives—an explicit, lengthy e-mail detailing everything they did. (I hate to paint this as "bitchez be crazy," but sometimes bitchez be crazy.) It's not how I found out, but it certainly hasn't helped. Ironically, our sex life has only gotten better since I found out exactly what they did—it turns out that we are both far more GGG than the other ever knew. But sometimes we're in bed, and I'll flash on something she wrote and the vivid mental images her letter cooked up in my head, and it sears me. Dealing with that pain out of the bedroom has been hard enough. It's devastating that it's now with me in the bedroom as well. How can I deal with this?

Salve It, Please

1. LTRs are only possible if we're willing take "yes" for an answer. He says yes, he loves you, and you will yourself to believe him; he says yes, he's having sex with you because he's attracted to you, and you will yourself to believe him; he says he strayed and is sorry and swears he won't do it again... and you will yourself to believe him. And while the passage of time makes monsters of us all, SIP, it can strengthen a sexual connection even as sex itself becomes less important when weighed against everything else your LTR is or should be about. In the words of singer-songwriter Tim Minchin: "Love is made more powerful by the ongoing drama of shared experience and synergy and symbiotic empathy, or something like that."

2. Angry cheated partner: "You did what with that person? I would've done that with you! And I have kinks and fantasies, too, you know!"

Contrite cheating partner: "I was afraid to ask you to do that! I was afraid you would hate me—wait, you have kinks and fantasies? What are they?"

Conversations like that one are why affairs—if the relationship survives the betrayal—sometimes kick-start a couple's sex life. With all the kink-and-whatever-else cards on the table, the couple starts going at it like they have nothing to lose—because in that moment when breaking up is on the table, they actually don't have anything to lose.

As for those troubling mental images: The passage of time is your body's enemy on the physical-perfection front—and his, too—but it's your best friend on the searing-mental-images front, SIP. The more time you two spend doing, enjoying, and perfecting X, Y, and Z sex acts, the more X, Y, and Z becomes about you two and your connection. As you take ownership over X, Y, and Z, and over each other again, the mental images will come to you less often, they'll be less vivid, and gradually they'll cease. Give it time.

A letter in a recent column was from a guy who's trying to figure out how to get into gay BDSM. You suggested some advice from a gay BDSM blogger—Ben In Leather Land (tinyurl.com/bensten)—and it was awesome. Do you have any suggestions of similar blogs for women into BDSM?

Looking Lady

Sex writer/blogger/thinker/haver Tristan Taormino, who is publishing a new book about BDSM and kinky sex (The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge), recommends fetish icon Midori's column in SexIs magazine (tinyurl.com/edenmidori) for women who are just beginning to explore kink.

HEY, EVERYBODY: We're seeking sordid and tragic stories of holiday sex for an upcoming episode of the Savage Lovecast. Ever been caught having sex at Mom and Dad's over the holidays? Ever put a "For Grandma, from Santa!" card on a wrapped box that contained a sex toy you bought for someone else? Did your older brothers stick your vibrator in the tree before a Christmas party, and you had to leave it there because reaching into the tree to remove it would only attract attention to it? Call and record your story at 206-201-2720! Please keep it under three minutes, if at all possible!

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I'm a 21-year-old woman from Canada who sleeps with other women. Two questions for you:

1. My LGBT friends and I disagree about what we girls who sleep with girls exclusively should call ourselves. Everyone else prefers "lesbian" and bitches at me for hating that word. Can't I call myself gay?

2. I am a really kinky person: I've been very sexually active and into BDSM since I was 16. I have a large toy collection and many of the toys are dildos and anal plugs. I like anal a lot, but the thought of vaginal just doesn't interest me, so I've never gone there. I've read about how breaking the hymen can hurt and—despite the fact that I enjoy being flogged and scratched—that scares me a little. Should I get over it and go to town or stick with everything else that works for me?

Good Gay Girl

1. You can call yourself whatever you like, GGG, and your friends can call themselves whatever they like. They're entitled to their opinions, however, along with their preferred labels. Friends should be able to discuss their differing opinions and preferences without bitching and/or being so thin-skinned that a calm discussion about a sensitive subject is mistaken for bitching.

2. "Tearing the hymen doesn't always hurt and rarely hurts with any severity," says Debby Herbenick, sex researcher, vulva puppeteer, and coauthor (with Vanessa Schick) of Read My Lips: A Complete Guide to the Vagina and Vulva. "Going slow with a smallish, well-lubricated dildo is a good place to start, or two or three well-lubricated fingers. Doing this while highly aroused sets you up for a better experience."

But before you explore vaginal penetration, GGG, Herbenick recommends a trip to your nearest female-friendly sex-toy shop.

"If most of your toys have been used in the anus/rectum," says Herbenick, "it would be wise to get a new vagina toy."

And if you're broke?

"Then put a condom over a clean anal toy or clean a nonporous (glass, medical-grade silicone) anal toy before using it in the sensitive vagina," says Herbenick.

While most women enjoy vaginal penetration, GGG, not all women do. (And most women who enjoy vaginal penetration require additional, focused, and intense stimulation of the clit in order to get off.) If you decide vaginal penetration isn't for you, that's also a preference to which you're entitled.

I was chatting with a guy, and he mentioned that one time this girl accidentally vomited all over him during oral sex. He confessed that this turned him on. I consider myself GGG, but that is not something I'm game for. The thought of puking in a sexual scenario is completely unappealing. Does my refusal to do this revoke my GGG card? Or is this so out of the norm that I can refuse without losing my GGG card?

Pleasing Upchucking = Kinky Extremism?

Let's revisit my original definition of GGG: "GGG stands for good, giving, and game, which is what we should all strive to be for our sex partners. Think good in bed, giving equal time and equal pleasure, and game for anything—within reason."

Some kinksters skip past the "within reason" part of the definition when they're discussing kinks with vanilla partners. They shouldn't. Extreme bondage or SM, shit and puke, emotionally tricky humiliation play, demanding that your partner have sex with other people because it turns you on (asking your partner to assume all of the physical risks that go along with that, to say nothing of the emotional risks for a partner who isn't interested in having sex with other people), etc.—all of that falls under the FTF exclusion, or a "fetish too far," which you'll find in the fine print on the back of your GGG card, PUKE.

I'm a 20-year-old female college student living with my 23-year-old boyfriend. We've been dating for two years, and our sex life has always been awesome. My boyfriend has a high libido, so high that I can't always get him off when he wants it. He says I don't want to have sex with him, when we have sex probably four times a week and I'm totally happy to give him head, jerk him off, or take off my clothes for him any other time he asks. Whenever we sit down together, he's immediately horny and he gets cranky when I have to say no. Is this a ridiculously high libido? I try to be GGG, and he does the same for me, but I hate feeling guilty about not having sex with him constantly. I've started just telling him to masturbate to porn, and he does it willingly but usually whines a little first about how I "never" want to have sex. Totally false! My body just can't take it every day. What do I do?

My Boyfriend Is Incredibly Horny

At two years, your boyfriend is getting vaginal intercourse four times a week, MBIIH, along with handjobs, blowjobs, and you standing there naked whenever he likes? Plus a cheerful okay to watch porn and jerk it whenever he feels the need?

You're not trying to be GGG, MBIIH, you are GGG.

Your boyfriend doesn't realize how good he's got it. He isn't lacking for sex; what he lacks is perspective. He clearly doesn't understand or appreciate what it's like to be on the receiving end of all that dick. Saying something like this might help him understand: "You know I love you, honey, and you know I love having sex with you. But if your hole got fucked every time we had 'sex,' you wouldn't want to have 'sex' more than four times a week, either." (I'm putting "sex" in quotes here because your boyfriend defines sex as "vaginal intercourse." I do not. Oral, handjobs, and visuals-with-a-partner—all of that counts as sex.)

If that doesn't do the trick, MBIIH, buy your boyfriend a dildo that's roughly the same size as his dick. Then tell him he can fuck your hole whenever he wants, for as long as he wants—so long as he fucks his own hole first, while you watch, for at least 20 minutes or so. Then he can fuck yours.

That might help him appreciate how good he's got it.

Never heard of you until a year ago.

I'm into "ball busting"—getting slapped or kicked in the nuts—but my wife was never willing. I did something stupid and saw an escort, just to get my balls busted (no sex), and my wife found out. She was talking about divorce when she told her best friend what was going on. Her friend told her to read your archives first.

You probably don't hear this from conservative Christian Republicans in red states very often, Mr. Savage, but my sense of honor requires it of me: Thank you for saving my marriage. This "GGG" concept of yours transformed our marriage—it also led my wife to either discover or open up about her kink—and we are happier than ever. It isn't lost on me that I have a gay man to thank for keeping us from becoming another sad divorce statistic.

Busted And Loving Life Supremely

You're welcome, BALLS, and all I ask in return for saving your marriage—besides video—is your support for the full legal recognition of mine. Deal?

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Hi, Carolyn:

I have a long-standing crush on a co-worker. He would even say I had an emotional affair of sorts with him: I would do really fun things with him and not tell my boyfriend, or even lie to him about what I was doing.

Dear Carolyn:

My boyfriend of two years and I are moving in together. We are both 30. This has been a wonderful relationship with very few disagreements.

My one big concern is that he looks at porn. He is very secretive about it, but I have walked in on him a few times watching it and have seen it on the computer. It literally makes me ill.

Adapted from recent online discussions, and continued from yesterday.

Hi, Carolyn:

I have a horrible view of menas attitudes toward women after having three-plus boyfriends who lied, manipulated and criticized me. My lack of trust in my new boyfriend and lack of self-esteem are the only problems he and I have in our relationship.

Adapted from a recent online discussion.

Dear Carolyn:

Iam a 20-year-old female college student. My last ex-boyfriend, of five months, was abusive: emotionally, mentally and even physically (a few times).

Dear Carolyn: I was asked for relationship advice by a friend of my girlfriend. I gave what I thought was good advice, which led to said friend breaking up with her boyfriend. Rightly so a he was cheating.

Adapted from recent online discussions.

Hi, Carolyn:

Iave been with my boyfriend 1¹ / ₂ years, we live together, itas a supportive, affectionate relationship. Lately, weave been talking about marriage and children (his initiative, and Iam on board).

Dear Carolyn:

Iam madly in love with my caring, funny and stable boyfriend of over a year. Weave been relatively drama-free, despite being long-distance the entire time. We were good friends before dating, so knew quite a bit about each other going into it, skeletons included. Thereas no doubt that without the foundation of friendship, our relationship would not be as strong as it is.

Adapted from a recent online discussion.

Hi, Carolyn:

My boyfriend of five years is going to a major family function and didnat invite me. So, I made other plans while also considering how exactly to approach this with him a it is very much his personality.

Adapted from a recent online discussion.

Dear Carolyn:

How much time is appropriate to mourn the end of a serious relationship? I had been with my live-in boyfriend for six years when we broke up this summer. Friends were there for me at first, but they have quickly started encouraging me to move on and seem impatient when I say Iam still adjusting.

Adapted from a recent online discussion.

Dear Carolyn:

How do you know when a relationship has become too much work? My boyfriend of three years wants to go to coupleas counseling, and while I am willing to try to work out our problems, I am not optimistic about a couple who have had problems for almost half the relationship and already need counseling.

Hi, Carolyn:

I have a long-standing crush on a co-worker. He would even say I had an emotional affair of sorts with him: I would do really fun things with him and not tell my boyfriend, or even lie to him about what I was doing.

Dear Carolyn:

My boyfriend of two years and I are moving in together. We are both 30. This has been a wonderful relationship with very few disagreements.

My one big concern is that he looks at porn. He is very secretive about it, but I have walked in on him a few times watching it and have seen it on the computer. It literally makes me ill.

Adapted from recent online discussions, and continued from yesterday.

Hi, Carolyn:

I have a horrible view of menas attitudes toward women after having three-plus boyfriends who lied, manipulated and criticized me. My lack of trust in my new boyfriend and lack of self-esteem are the only problems he and I have in our relationship.