Just because life is short, does not make adultery acceptable.

The Internet is a playground for social networking. One of the most notable contributions to this bubbling landscape is the idea of Internet dating sites. Yet, with these new dating models gaining more popularity, entrepreneurs are coming up with new and more ‘innovative’ ideas to reach different groups of Internet users.

One of these entrepreneurs is Noel Biderman, who is President and creator of The Ashley Madison Agency, an Internet Web site that is essentially a dating service for married individuals looking to commit adultery. The Web site was made available to the public in 2002, and currently boasts having over two and a half million members. Its tag line says enough “Life is short, have an affair.”

This begs many ethical questions. However, some may make the argument that it can help a marriage, because monogamy is “against human instinct.” I am not saying that I agree with this, but statistically speaking if you were to compare divorce statistics, the United States (a country that generally frowns on infidelity) has a rate of 4.95 divorces per 1,000 people, and a country like Italy (where infidelity is more common) has a rate of .27 divorces per 1,000 people. The argument could be made that having an extra- marital affair may be what is needed to hold the family together.

I want to say that I truly believe in marriage. I think monogamy is great, however with sex scandals constantly in the lime light (Tiger Woods comes to mind?), I think it’s important to examine how our culture is currently looking at the institution.

I do not agree with the Ashley Madison philosophy, and do think that it promotes cheating by creating an environment where it is considered acceptable. Yet, I have to consider that if people in committed relationships want to cheat so bad as to pay for the service, if this site was non-existent would they just pose as unattached lookers on a legitimate dating site for singles? Who knows…

Yet, in my opinion the problem with Ashley Madison is not only their promotion of desperate housewives and dick-brained husbands, but how they choose to advertise their service. I have seen a few commercials, and find them misogynistic. I suppose for a site like this the punch line has to be raunchy and memorable, yet even their print ads are in bad taste(70% of the clientele are male users, so this is not a surprise).
Below are a few examples:




Overall, I believe in a person’s right to choose how they want to live, yet if you are so desperate as to turn to such a site, I think that couples counseling would be the better option. I hope that no one ever anticipates being unfaithful to a spouse prior to entering a marriage, but I am sure some people do, so to those individuals the message is simple: DON’T EVER GET MARRIED.

And, if the marriage is beyond repair, counseling does not work, and the only option left is to get your rocks off on a site like this, I think it should be clear that you don’t only need to register for the Web site, but for a divorce attorney as well.


Good Morning America talking about real "Desperate Housewives."


You should go home to your wife dumbass!

Until Next Post,
G.