Were people more faithful back in the day? (Crosspost)

bluemagex2517 · 2024-01-18T18:09:50+00:00

Not you fault OP, but it really irks me when people conflate cheating with promiscuity, like the person in the original post did.

Simply having a bunch of mutually consensual sex with various people while you're single is not an indicator of a lack of fidelity once someone gets into a committed relationship.

Lots of people who stay virgins until marriage cheat on their partners. Lots people who have tons of one night stands settle down and never cheat. The opposite is true is well.

The number of sexual partners person has had doesn't have a bearing on their likely fidelity, unless they've cheated in the past.

Anyway: No. I don't think people were more or less faithful at least since I was born: the 1980s.

thrownawaytodaysr · 2024-01-18T15:41:21+00:00

I don't believe there's evidence to support decreased faithfulness. Never mind that moving onto the next seems different than a lack of being faithful. It suggests knowing one's value and seeking out someone who treats you as you deserve to be treated. But that's a whole other discussion.

I guess in some frames, being able to leave would look like unfaithfulness but I usually see it in the context of infidelity and not commitment.

If that's the intent, sure. Divorce being legal made divorce more common. Women having more economic independence makes them less prone to staying in a poisoned relationship. And so on. But if the question is around infidelity/cheating? Doubtful.

Yabbari_The_Wizard · 2024-01-18T17:07:50+00:00

I'll use my grandpa and dad as an example.

No people were way more unfaithful in the past.

My grandpa was drink driving with my grandma, mum and auntie in the car and he caused a 5 car pile up. He told them to not tell the cops and ran to his girlfriends house for a week to hide.

He cheated on my grandma a lot and even had another kid with a neighbour and tried to convince my grandma to have the other woman to live with her.

My dad basically cheated on my mum for half of their marriage at least. Any money he'd make would go to these loose women and my mum put up with it cause she wanted her kids to have a dad and so they'd see how much of a piece of shit he really was.

Divorce was less of an option back in those days so people would do whatever and not really suffer.

SilverTango · 2024-01-18T22:52:22+00:00

People were WAY more unfaithful in the past, men in particular. They would go to brothels for fun and sex, and wives were expected to look the other way. You have to remember, for much of history, marriage was the weakest social tie because people didn’t marry for love. They married for survival, power, and money. One good thing about modern relationships is that people take cheating way more seriously. I would argue that men are probably more faithful nowadays.

xvszero · 2024-01-18T16:39:11+00:00

It's hard to say. Talk to old people and some will be like "kids nowadays blah blah blah" so you won't get the most objective answer.

I can tell you that my mom, who dated in the 1970s, said she chose my dad because "every other guy was just trying to have sex with as many women as they could" or something like that. Very anecdotal, but yeah.

Red_Trapezoid · 2024-01-18T17:54:33+00:00

I have zero evidence for this but in my opinion people were probably less faithful back in the day because way too often people would have to shack up with people that they didn't like at all or even hated. If you were gay you probably had a "really good friend" you'd go "camping" and "fishing" with.

hifioctopi · 2024-01-18T16:29:54+00:00

It was far easier to cheat. The only problem is the other person might call your house phone with your entire family present.

MVPSnacker · 2024-01-18T14:58:00+00:00

TBT the Scarlet Letter

Repemptionhappens · 2024-01-18T17:37:33+00:00

Well. This is just my personal observation as an older woman. I don’t think people were any more or less faithful. People, whether they were true believers or not, went to church more because it was a social & family event. It went on even after church services with many families having a large Sunday meal (for Christian’s anyway), with lots of extended family attending. I’m not sure how many truly believed or were just going through the motions because it was expected of them.
Organized religion did not work for me. However, I have found that the Unitarian spiritual centers do. They not only help me be social, but I also am given opportunities to volunteer with dogs through their animal ministries.

undercovertrad · 2024-01-19T23:59:25+00:00

People, especially men, still cheated tons back in the day. You just didn’t hear about it as much and women weren’t able to divorce the cheating husband as easily. Don’t get it mixed. People have been acting a fool for millennia.

Straight-Sock4353 · 2024-01-19T01:57:24+00:00

MechanicHopeful4096 · 2024-01-21T00:56:36+00:00

So many people cheated on their spouses back in the day, like divorce wasn’t even an option for many so they just hid their infidelity well. It was very common

Title	Were people more faithful back in the day? (Crosspost)
Author	throwawayptsd0987
Upvotes	0
Comments	15
Date	January 18, 2024 2:33 PM UTC (2 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/ExRedPill
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/exredpill/comments/199rhh0/were_people_more_faithful_back_in_the_day/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/ExRedPill/were-people-more-faithful-back-in-the-day.1243267 https://theredarchive.com/post/1243267

Comments