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.
