Recently I was listening to a talkback radio broadcast on the subject of internet chatting. The question was, “Is it cheating to flirt with someone on the internet?” The responses did not surprise me. The majority of the women who phoned in answered with a categorical “YES! It’s cheating!” while the majority of the men who called up couldn’t see the harm in it.

 

There is a clear difference in the way the sexes perceive this subject. I could speculate on why. Men lead very active fantasy lives, and see it as just an extension of their usual fantasies. They have a stronger tendency to objectify, so do not always preceive the other person as “real”.  But that would be mere speculation.

 

The point is, men and women don’t think alike on this issue. I get a lot of calls from women worried that their new partner has yet to drop his profile off the dating site on which they met. He still logs in occasionally and looks at profiles. Oftentimes he’s just looking at the pictures and fantasizing. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’s still searching. Just because you bought a new outfit it doesn’t stop you window shopping!

 

Before leaping to conclusions, you need to find out what views your partner holds about internet chatting. You may not be reading from the same page of the book. I’m not justifying or condoning, just pointing out that men and women really do seem to come from different planets at times