My boyfriend of eight years and I love each other to death and are very happy. Still, I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t bother me that some people think we aren’t in a “real” relationship because we aren’t married and live separately. Is there a way to get them to respect the validity […]
Amy Alkon
Posted inArts & Culture
All doc and no action
I’ve been going to the same primary care doctor for a few years. I’m very attracted to him, and I believe he’s attracted to me, too. There’s always been a dynamic between us. I thought it was his “bedside manner,” but when I asked others, they didn’t have the same experience with him. I know […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Gone with the Windex
I’m a woman sharing a house with several roommates. We’re all in our mid-20s. This one male roommate and I sometimes cook meals together, and we share a bathroom (since we’re both cleaner than the other roommates) and deep-clean the kitchen together. I’ve always been attracted to him, but he spends three nights a week […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Watching paint die
I’ve been dating a girl I really like for six weeks. She pays her rent with a 9-to-5 job but studied painting at art school and wants to make it her career. Unfortunately, I don’t like her paintings at all. They are abstract and don’t look like they take much craft, and they just don’t […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Six-month lay away
For my New Year’s resolution, I committed to not having sex for the first six months of the year and then another six months from whenever I start dating someone. I’ve never been good at waiting. In fact, the longest I have ever waited is a month and the shortest (and perhaps more typically) is […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The fastidious and the furious
My boyfriend of nine years is extremely messy, while I prefer things tidy and clean. Cajoling, asking and flat-out begging him for consideration and help on this hasn’t worked, nor have tactics like establishing certain areas for clutter. He contends I’m too picky about how he cleans. He says this started when we moved in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Serf’s up!
My boyfriend works at a hardware store and can fix things, and in the past six months, his sister and her husband have asked him to install their new kitchen faucet, mend their fence (with the husband’s help) and assemble a lawnmower. They are lawyers and could afford a handyman. Instead, they feed him a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Save the wails
Are guys scared of politically active women? My boyfriend of two months just broke up with me over my support for animal rights, and I’ve generally had difficulty keeping boyfriends because of this. This boyfriend was bothered by two incidents. In the first, I got into an argument about zoos with one of his friends […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fool disclosure
On a business trip, I drank WAY too much with some work friends and ended up kissing a random girl I met at a bar, despite my having a girlfriend I love very much. I feel horrible. Until now, I’d never cheated on a woman. Is it crazy to want to tell my girlfriend? It […]
Posted inArts & Culture
When Harry met hairy
My girlfriend of six months just stopped shaving her legs and armpits. I think she is so sexy – except for this. Recently, I asked her whether she’d shave again, and she snapped that shaving is time-consuming and the idea that women should remove their body hair comes from anti-feminist propaganda. I don’t know about […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The grating outdoors
This great girl I’ve been dating just invited me on a camping trip. Frankly, there is nothing I would like to do less. I hate camping, and I won’t know anyone but her. The trip is three days with 20 of her friends, including her ex-boyfriend, so I worry about asking her to go without […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pamper-resistant
After six years with a lazy and ambitionless boyfriend, I found a funny, loyal, caring boyfriend I love, with a solid career and a good work ethic. He pays his share of our bills and even does our laundry! The problem is, at 28, he is SO incredibly spoiled by his parents. They are well-off […]
