Why Does My Boyfriend Look at Other Women?

I am in a serious relationship with a man that I have known for many years but have only started the relationship in the past few months. Our relationship seems like a dream, we have always cared for each other, but I think our timing was never right. We had started a relationship at 20 and I subsequently broke his heart. He did not communicate his feelings for me which led me to believe there was no future for us and I moved on. Nevertheless, we continued to be friends and it’s now been 18 years. We have matured and grown and are better equipped emotionally to have a successful relationship, at least I feel that way.

You have far more to worry about than a nudie poster. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?

He lives across the country, has a great job and is leaving it behind to come and start a new life with me at this point. We are buying a home together and are trying to start a family, but something still makes me feel doubt and insecurity. I had the chance to see his place, I flew out for a week vacation (he often visits me and I wanted to see him at his end) and saw his apartment for the first time. I chuckled at first, seeing that it was decorated with flags and beer posters and such but when I saw the detailed nudie poster of a woman signed to him with love hanging on the inside of his closet door I felt like throwing up. He is an intelligent man, very successful, very down to earth, is very respectful and caring in how he treats me, very loving, sensitive and has no problems sharing how much he loves me anymore… all those things a girl would want. But I am disgusted by that poster, I didn’t say a thing to him about it, I figured this is his place and who am I to throw my opinion in his face about his decorating tastes so to speak. But the whole time I was there that was all I could think about! It drove me crazy, I felt like it was a notch on his belt that he had to hide in his closet but yet had no qualms with letting me see it. I have a lot of negative feelings about this and I’m hoping that my perspective on this needs an adjustment. Hope you can put me at ease or help me deal with this in an appropriate way so we can move forward because I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall.

Thanks,
Trixie

Ready for Lasting Love?
Ready for Lasting Love?

Oh, Trixie.

You have far more to worry about than a nudie poster. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?

First let me attempt to put you at ease with the concept of the signed (and detailed!) nudie poster. I know it’s easier said than done, but this one’s on you. There is absolutely, positively, 100% nothing wrong with a normal, red-blooded American man who appreciates the naked female form. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a man who turns away in abject horror when presented with the image of a perfect body.

Expecting men not to be turned on by magazines, calendars, porn and strip clubs is like wishing for the sky to be red — a pleasant thought, perhaps, but not one consistent with reality. As long as he’s not ADDICTED to magazines, calendars, porn and strip clubs, he falls in the healthy 80th percentile of men in the bell curve — stimulated by visions of unattainable women. Better to embrace that and use it to your advantage than to go crazy about a fact of life.

Expecting men not to be turned on by magazines, calendars, porn and strip clubs is like wishing for the sky to be red — a pleasant thought, perhaps, but not one consistent with reality.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s discuss the many, many things that are wrong with this picture:

1)             He is an intelligent, successful, down-to-earth, 38-year-old man…who keeps a signed naked poster in his closet? Not to mention beer signs and football pennants? At best, he’s an overgrown frat boy who desperately needs a woman’s touch around the house. At worst, he’s a clueless delayed adolescent who has absolutely no consideration for how his décor makes women feel. I’ll let you make that call yourself. But, from personal experience, I had tons of posters of women — Paulina Porizkova, Kathy Smith, Kathy Ireland, Cindy Crawford — in my room when I was 15-18 years old. My mom continued to send me the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar for Christmas into my early-mid 20’s. I loved looking at it, but kept it hung in my closet out of embarrassment, until eventually I asked her to stop sending it. I could not possibly imagine how your guy has gone this long without realizing how this makes him look. Any ideas?

DO YOU WANT TO FIX YOUR BROKEN MAN-PICKER?

2)   He’s moving cross-country, you’re buying a home and you’re starting a family…and you’re worried about a freakin’ poster in his closet? I’d spend a lot more time visiting each other, trying to build up a sense of trust and normalcy, instead of signing on the dotted line and sorting it all out later.

Please, Trixie, for your own sake, slow down on the proclamations of love and marriage and future and babies — and try to figure out if you guys are truly a long-term fit. If you are a good fit, then a poster doesn’t matter. And if a poster makes you second guess the basis of your entire relationship, maybe it’s best that you don’t rush things.

It just seems that you’re putting things out of order, and by focusing on the minutiae, you’re missing the big picture stuff that will determine your success.

Best of luck.

DO YOU WANT TO FIX YOUR BROKEN MAN-PICKER?