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The Cheating Rumor Mill Is Changing Before Our Eyes
Our reactions to rumors and confirmed instances of cheating are changing, and we may not even realize it.
There was a time when rumors of someone cheating swept through the town like a plague. Catherine is cheating on Robert with the guy at the hardware store! The gasps and the cloud of dark energy that swooped down over the city couldn’t be ignored. The side eyes and dark stares when one of the guilty parties was spotted in public were unmistakable.
There is a funny caveat to this, however. People would shake their heads and talk about how much of a shame it was. When a woman was rumored to be fucking a married man, she was labeled a homewrecker and the man was deemed to be a monster not worthy of public decency. Yet, this was the public perception. Deep down, there were feelings of envy and jealousy that these “cheaters” were getting to live their best lives, even when it seemed that their lives were on the brink of crumbling. Suzy Mae would all but spit on Catherine in the street, but behind her bedroom door she would fantasize about taking the hardware guy’s cock in every imaginable way while her husband watched sports on TV in the living room.
Sometimes these were just rumors, and there was no adultery taking place whatsoever, but…
