By J. DeVoy
I’ve discussed Ashley Madison on two prior occasions. By all appearances, it’s a a dating service people actually use, and it has money to throw around. For the uninitiated, Ashley Madison is a paid dating website that pairs married men with married women, so that they may cheat on their respective spouses with one another under the safety umbrella of mutually assured marital destruction. Unsurprisingly, it was started by a former lawyer. Kudos to you, good sir.
The stroke of brilliance that led to Ashley Madison’s success is now evident in its marketing. A recent advertisement that has the whiners at Jezebel all up in a huff shows a corpulent woman in revealing clothing, asking “did your wife SCARE you last night?” If so, the natural conclusion is to join Ashley Madison and cheat.
In a country where the majority of divorces are initiated by women, who are then entitled to lavish amounts of alimony and child support – which does not necessarily even go to the child – a rational man should be scared of his wife every night. (And day, for that matter.) A woman will cheat on or divorce a man if his earning power drops, or even if she has some nebulous Eat-Pray-Love experience where she no longer “feels” an emotional bond for her spouse – why not cheat if she’s done something that concretely diminishes your attraction to her, such as gaining 200 pounds?
I’m not necessarily advocating adultery. What I am saying, however, is that I can understand why cheating would make sense, as opposed to “manning up” and just filing for divorce, in light of materially changed circumstances and the prevailing misandrist legal climate. A woman’s looks to a man are what a man’s intelligence, charisma, earning potential, social status, looks and “confidence” are, combined, to a woman. Suddenly male aversion to a fat wife isn’t so shocking.
In all, this is good advertising. My friends in that field probably are angry that they didn’t come up with the idea first. It’s subversive and offensive because it embraces reality. Woe unto its detractors.
