Does My Wife Need to Know About My Porn Habit?
This is the fifth and last installment in a series for this column, answering readers’ thorniest questions about sex and love as part of a special magazine issue on relationships.
My wife and I have been together for almost 10 years. We met in college, and our relationship is wonderful overall. Our sex life is generally good, but we have mismatched libidos — I have a much higher sex drive than she does.
We’ve talked about this discrepancy but never articulated a formal compromise on it. Early in our relationship, I confessed that I struggled with watching pornography on a regular basis; she was upset, but I assured her that I was working on it.
Unfortunately, I still watch pornography and masturbate to it almost daily. I am aware that the mainstream pornography industry is widely seen as one that preys on people who are vulnerable, or that takes advantage of women, and that there are questions surrounding the ethics of porn more broadly.
