Infidelity

In patriarchal society women are frequently viewed as property, and marriages are arranged along economic lines. The important thing is to ensure the legitimate succession of the male line. Premarital virginity is an important commodity and the value of a woman is greatly reduced if she is not virgin at the time of marriage. Beyond that, since women were assumed to be disinterested in sex, non-virginity hinted that she might be promiscuous, sexually available to any man. This of course, threatened her image as an object that had sexual purity, a virtue desirable in a wife.

On the one hand, a man was supposed to have uncontrollable sex drives and therefore need a woman for satisfaction. On the other hand, society demanded that he look for a wife who cared nothing about sex. The result was that men saw women as ether ``good`` or ``bad.`` one married a ``good`` woman and had minimal sexual contact with her; one consorted with ``bad`` women in order to enjoy sexual activity.

This division of women into two distinct, non over lapping groups gave implicit permission for men to seek sexual gratification from women outside their social circle and later outside their marriages, at the same time maintaining their image of women friends and wives as pure. Men were expected to have sexual relations apart from marriage, provided that they were discreet. Women were permitted to have and express no sexual craving or pleasure; their sexuality was repressed.

A change in these attitudes has occurred this may be due to religious teachings losing their influence in our life. Another reason for this change has been the shift from the traditional patriarchal family with its stress on family as a group, to the ideal of the egalitarian family, which emphasizes satisfaction of the ego needs of the individual members.





Bibliography

BEN-ZE`EV, A. (2004) Love Online Emotions on the Internet. , Cambridge
University Press

Duberman, L.(1977) Marriage and other alternatives 2nd ed., Praeger publishers.