Sexting: Is It Cheating?

When did Americans become so soft on cheating? Once again, “sexting” is major news, mainly in response to what critics are calling “Weinergate.”

New York Congressman Anthony Weiner sent a photo of his crotch to his Twitter fans, then freaked out and claimed his account had been hacked. All lies.

Now that he’s finally admitted his mistake, more women are stepping forward. Surprisingly, his wife is still by his side, although she has not appeared or commented. 

Her behavior has raised quite a few questions and sparked an interesting debate among us right now.

By standing by him despite his wrongdoings, is his wife, Huma Abedinrein, reinforcing bad behavior? Is sexting cheating? Or strictly fantasy?

The women on the other ends of those phones and computers are real, therefore, isn’t Weiner’s sexually explicit communication with them equally so? At best, it’s emotional cheating. No, Weiner and his other women never touched (as far as we know), but haven’t they both seen and said way more than anyone not in a committed marriage or relationship should have?

Must the interaction between a man and woman be purely physical to constitute wrongdoing? Take video and internet pornography, for instance. I hear women in relationships complaining all the time of feeling hurt, betrayed, and often even insecure when they find out their men are addicted to porn. It’s a tough pill to swallow.

When a woman sees that a man prefers a porn star to real-life intimacy with her, it hurts. She may start to question if she even makes him happy. Finding out your husband or boyfriend is sexting other women feels even worse, because the women on the other end aren’t actresses getting paid, they’re real-life threats to your happiness.

These women aren’t friends, they’re more like e-mistresses. A man is sharing intimacy with someone else via Twitter or Facebook, and embarrassing the woman who trusts him enough to think he would know better. If that’s not emotional cheating, then what is?