Is cheating more acceptable in some cultures over others?

[kratz]

Hey guys,

I was reading an article about English and French marriage and divorces(This is based on an article, so if we have British and French members feel free to correct the article writer). In the article, I read that English(and Americans) view marriage very differently. They said that for them, marriage entails strict monogamy and that cheating is seen as breaking a vow to your spouse and matter of public shame. That is why it can cause divorces and newspaper scandals. Meanwhile, French people had a more pragmatic view of marriage and personal life. They saw marriage as a private matter. Therefore each spouse could decide how to approach the situation. Sometime they'll be compromises where spouses could see others discreetly.Therefore, they had lower rates of divorce.

Moreover, I reading another article on Japanese culture(again if you Japanese or live in Japan feel free to jump in), and they said that marriage was a vow to the state and not necessarily to the spouse. Therefore, Japanese people had kids to another, but their relationships weren't that close. That's why it would be acceptable for the husband to go with his friends to massage parlors or brothels. While the wife could go to Host clubs..etc.


What do you guys think?

[samario]

I like the American/English approach to marriage, according to your post.

[Daco Celtic]

In conclusion, get a Japanese girlfriend

[kratz]

I like the American/English approach to marriage, according to your post.

The grass is always greener on the other side, my friend. I know many Americans who would take the first ticket to Colombia and never look back. In fact, there are multiple groups of ex-pats who do exactly that.

[samario]

The grass is always greener on the other side, my friend. I know many Americans who would take the first ticket to Colombia and never look back. In fact, there are multiple groups of ex-pats who do exactly that.

I never said I want to leave Colombia, though. Yeah, there's been an increase of American and European ex-pats here lately. Many gay tourists from Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica, too.

[Alenka]

Hey guys,

I was reading an article about English and French marriage and divorces(This is based on an article, so if we have British and French members feel free to correct the article writer). In the article, I read that English(and Americans) view marriage very differently. They said that for them, marriage entails strict monogamy and that cheating is seen as breaking a vow to your spouse and matter of public shame. That is why it can cause divorces and newspaper scandals. Meanwhile, French people had a more pragmatic view of marriage and personal life. They saw marriage as a private matter. Therefore each spouse could decide how to approach the situation. Sometime they'll be compromises where spouses could see others discreetly.Therefore, they had lower rates of divorce.

But actually, France (54.29%) has a higher divorce ratio compared to the UK (40.91%) and USA (42.03%).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_demography

[Rᴜᴛʜʟᴇss]

I thought this would be an interesting thread on peoples from different cultures who tend to see cheating as a valid method of making their way into universities. The higher frequency of cheating is among Asians, from what I know.

I don't have much information about what's being discussed on this thread, though. The best hypothesis I can come up with is that the more liberal is a culture, the more acceptable is cheating, or at least forgivable.

[MsSPF]

There are cultures where divorce is shameful or compromising, therefore people won’t divorce for kids well being or family’s reputation, that are more important than your own interests. In more traditional cultures where woman are still very dependant on men economically, divorce are less important as well.
Most cultures are monogamous, in general it’s the fear of reputation/loss of economic comfort that restrain people of divorcing and force them to «tolerate» (which does not mean they agree with it) infidelity.
Cultures where men still have great power and polygamy used to or is still practised (Asia, Africa, Middle East) seem also to tolerate more infidelity than others because it’s in «men’s nature to desire women» although adultery is punished in most big religions.

I’m not sure about French being «open-minded» with infidelity, trust me, it’s not accepted at all. There are people with different sexual tastes (swinging couples etc) but it’s very rare and only concerns a minority, you find them pretty much everywhere in the Western world.

With the LGBT/liberalist recent wave though, there is increase of «polyamorous» people (or whatever they named it) in the Western world and especially in North America. The trend is still new here in Europe.

[The Lawspeaker]

In this country until 1971, infidelity was a legal ground for divorce. In fact: a lot of "bad marriages" were broken up by using "the Big Lie" as it was called, where the couple would claim together that one of them had cheated and taking up the blame, just so they could get divorced.

[kratz]

There are cultures where divorce is shameful or compromising, therefore people won’t divorce for kids well being or family’s reputation, that are more important than your own interests. In more traditional cultures where woman are still very dependant on men economically, divorce are less important as well.
Most cultures are monogamous, in general it’s the fear of reputation/loss of economic comfort that restrain people of divorcing and force them to «tolerate» (which does not mean they agree with it) infidelity.
Cultures where men still have great power and polygamy used to or is still practised (Asia, Africa, Middle East) seem also to tolerate more infidelity than others because it’s in «men’s nature to desire women» although adultery is punished in most big religions.

I’m not sure about French being «open-minded» with infidelity, trust me, it’s not accepted at all. There are people with different sexual tastes (swinging couples etc) but it’s very rare and only concerns a minority, you find them pretty much everywhere in the Western world.

With the LGBT/liberalist recent wave though, there is increase of «polyamorous» people (or whatever they named it) in the Western world and especially in North America. The trend is still new here in Europe.

Thanks for sharing. I don't want to speak on behalf of French people, so I'm glad you came in. I had French roommates and they are great people. I do think in the US there's more of a thread going on of couples enganging in open relationships(at least in big cities like NY, LA, San Francisco) is more of a novel concepts. When it comes to Latin America(at least in my country), I would say since the culture is more traditional women can turn a blind eye. Nowadays, I can't exactly say since feminism has emerged so things could have changed.