Gwyneth Paltrow — the most beautiful woman in the world, according to People — confessed to what Ben Affleck admitted a few months ago — marriage is hard and it takes work. “It’s hard being married. You go through great times, you go through terrible times. We’re the same as any couple,” Paltrow said of […]
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There’s an image we have about marriage, about “two becoming one.” Anyone who’s been married for length of time realizes that’s a bit of a lie. We’re still people with our own needs. In fact, many believe what we experience is a “his” and a “her” marriage. Some 50 years ago, sociologist Jessie Bernard noted […]
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I have been following the kerfuffle over Susan Patton’s letter in the Daily Princetonian, in which the former Princeton grad and mom to two Princeton-educated sons advises Princeton women to nab a hubby on campus before they graduate: “Princeton women, we have almost priced ourselves out of the market … you will never again be surrounded […]
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The HuffPo had a piece today on the double standard on weight gain for spouses. A woman had written to an advice columnist about how fat and lazy her longtime partner — whom she also describes as “intelligent, accomplished, emotionally mature, kind, loving, and funny” — had become, only to be told, “I’m sick, sick, […]
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As some of you know, Susan Pease Gadoua and I are co-writing The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels (and just snagged a literary agent, so things are really looking promising!) While it’s essential to talk about reinventing marriage to get the marriage you want, here’s an interesting question to ask […]
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It happened to Kris Humphries, it happened to Tom Cruise and it happens to people like you and me. Being blindsided by divorce. It seems odd — how can a spouse have absolutely no clue that his or her marriage is in trouble? Wouldn’t there be warning signs — a lack of interest in sex, […]
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Posted in Infidelity, Marriage, Men, Sex, Women on Dec 17th, 2012
Despite the fact that there hasn’t been any big infidelity news of late (but … give it time!), HuffPost’s divorce section has been having a bit of a run on stories on affairs, one of which was written by Tracy Schorn, who suggested in Seven Ways to Leave a Cheater that people who plan to […]
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Posted in Aging, Beauty, Expectations, Infidelity, Marriage, Men, Midlife, Sex, Stereotypes, Women on Nov 19th, 2012
The very married Gen. David Petraeus had an affair with a younger woman and the very married Gen. John Allen may have sent inappropriate emails to a younger woman. Whenever powerful men stray, we turn wonder, what’s going on at home? So we turn our attention to the wronged wives, and guess what — Holly […]
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Reading Laura Doyle’s HuffPost post, “6 Reasons Marriage Counseling is BS,” I recalled my own experience with marriage counseling as my marriage imploded. It was or miss — three couples’ counselors (the first was clearly clueless, the second was good but he didn’t like her, the third came too late), and one solo therapist (I […]
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Posted in Aging, Men, Mothers, Women on Sep 19th, 2012
With the publication of Hanna Rosin’s The End of Men, we are back to looking at things as men vs. women, a disturbing thought. (In fact. some female friends recently commented on my numerous pro-men columns; sure, I’ve written those, but being pro-men where there are injustices doesn’t mean I’m anti-women.) Whether you agree or […]
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